The   Nation's   Library, 


The  outstanding  feature  of  the  Nation's  Library 
is  specialised  information  by  the  most  capable  and  com- 
petent authorities,  and  every  subject  dealt  with  is 
brought  right  up  to  the  point  of  its  relationship  to  modem 
hfe  and  thought. 

Nothing  obsolete  finds  a  place  in  this  series;  each 
book  provides  ample  material  for  thought  in  its  particular 
direction  and  presents  knowledge  in  its  most  modem 
dress. 

The  volumes  already  issued  or  in  preparation 
include  >— 

SOCIALISM  AND  SYNDICALISM.  Philip  Snowden, 
M.P. 

AVIATION.     Claude  Grahame-White. 

SANE  TRADE  UNIONISM.  W.  V.  Osborne  (of  the 
Osborne  Judgment). 

INDUSTRIAL  GERMANY.  William  Harbutt 
Dawson. 

EUGENICS :  A  SCIENCE  AND  AN  IDEAL.  Edgar 
Schuster,  M.A.  (Oxon.),  D.Sc.,  Fellow  of  New 
College,  Oxford,  sometime  Galton  Research  Fellow 
in  National  Eugenics  at  the  University  of  London. 

THE  PRACTICAL  SIDE  OF  SMALL  HOLDINGS. 
James  Long,  Member  of  Departmental  Committee 
on  Small  Holdings. 

MODERN  VIEWS  ON  EDUCATION.  Thiseltom 
Mark,  B.Sc,  D.Lit.,  Lecturer  on  Education  in 
the  University  of  Manchester. 

WHY  OUR  RAILWAYS  SHOULD  BE  NATIONAL- 
ISED. Emil  Da  vies  (Chairman  Railway  National- 
isation Society). 

THE  FEMINIST  MOVEMENT.  Ethel  Snowdem 
(Mrs  Philip  Snowden). 


a  THE  NATION'S  LIBRARY— Continued 

CANADA  AS  AN  IMPERIAL  FACTOR.  Hamar 
Greenwood,  M.P.,  Barrister-at-Law. 

A  HISTORY  OF  TRUSTS.  M.  E.  Hirst,  M.A.  (Birm.), 
sometime  Scholar  of  Newnham  College,  Cambridge. 
With  an  Introduction  by  F.  W.  Hirst,  Editor  of 
The  Economist. 

WHY  OUR  RAILWAYS  SHOULD  NOT  BE 
NATIONALISED.  Edwin  A.  Pratt,  Author  of 
American  Railways. 

THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  EVOLUTION.  Joseph 
McCabe,  Author  of  The  Story  of  Evolution,  The 
Evolution  of  Mind,  etc. 

MODERN  COMMERCE:  A  SURVEY.  H.  H. 
Bassett,  Editor  Financial  Review  of  Reviews. 

A  BOOK  OF  FOLK-LORE.  Rev.  S.  Baring-Gould, 
M.A. 

THE  MODERN  BRITISH  NAVY.  Commander 
Charles  Robinson,  R.N.  (Ret.). 

BURNS.  Rev.  Lauchlan  MacLean  Watt,  M.A., 
B.D.,  F.R.S.E.,  F.S.A.  (Scot.). 

OIL  FUEL,  Vivian  B.  Lewes,  F.I.C,  F.C.S.,  Professor 
of  Chemistry  at  the  Royal  Naval  College,  Greenwich. 

CO-OPERATION  AND  CO-PARTNERSHIP.  Lang- 
ford  LovELL  Price,  M.A.,  Fellow  and  Treasurer 
of  Oriel  College,  Oxford,  Reader  in  Economic  History 
in  the  University  of  Oxford. 

POVERTY  AND  THE  STATE.  Geoffrey  Drage, 
M.A.  (Oxon.). 

THE  STAR  WORLD.  A.  C.  de  la  C.  Crommelin, 
B.A.,  D.Sc.  (Oxon.),  Assistant  at  Royal  Observatory, 
Greenwich. 


EUGENICS 


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ED  CAR  SCHUSTER 


PREFACE 

In  this  volume  I  have  attempted  to  give  an 
account  of  the  meanings  of  the  word  Eugenics, 
the  aims  of  those  who  advocate  a  eugenic 
policy,  and  the  more  important  of  the 
problems  which  confront  them.  I  have  kept 
distinct  the  descriptions  of  certain  researches 
directed  towards  the  elucidation  of  these 
problems,  in  order  to  show  as  clearly  as 
possible  in  what  manner  the  work  is  being 
done;  but  I  have  endeavoured  at  the  same 
time  to  indicate  the  bearing  of  each  research 
on  the  subject  as  a  whole. 

It  is  now  my  pleasant  duty  to  thank 
those  who  have  helped  me,  particularly 
Mrs  A.  C.  Gotto  and  Mr  A.  F.  Schuster. 
They  both  read  the  manuscript  most  care- 
fully and  most  kindly  criticised  it,  thereby 
enabling  me  to  eliminate  much  that  was 
obscure  or  Ulogical,  ungainly  or  ungram- 
matical.  To  the  former  I  am  also  indebted 
for  a  good  deal  of  the  information  contained 
in  Chapter  III.,  and  for  many  of  the  ideas 
expressed  in  Chapter  XI.,  and  to  the  latter 
for    finding    me    the    relevant    passages    in 


6  EUGENICS 

Plato's  Republic.  To  Dr  F.  C.  S.  Schiller 
my  thanks  are  due  for  what  has  been  taken 
from  Plato's  Laws,  and  to  Mr  A.  S.  L. 
Farquharson  for  such  knowledge  as  is  dis- 
played of  the  writings  of  Theognis  and 
Aristotle,  and  also  for  reading  and  criticising 
the  whole  of  Chapter  II.  For  help  on  other 
points  I  would  express  my  gratitude  to  Mr 
G.  W.  Smith  and  Mr  R.  R.  Marrett. 

It  is  difficult  to  estimate  exactly  what  one 
owes  to  published  sources.  Those  from  which 
special  information  is  taken  can  be  and  are 
mentioned  in  the  text  or  in  footnotes;  but 
there  are  some  works  whose  influence  on  one 
is  more  general,  and  these  it  is  impossible 
to  deal  with  in  this  way.  Though  doubtful 
of  the  propriety  of  naming  particular  authors 
among  the  many  whose  works  might  be 
included  in  this  class,  I  would  be  imgrateful 
not  to  acknowledge  a  certain  debt  to  Mr  and 
Mrs  Whetham  and  Mr  Havelock  Ellis. 

EDGAR  SCHUSTER. 

Oxford,  Dec,  1912. 


CONTENTS 


CRAP.  PAGE 

I.   INTEODUCnON           .             ,             ,             .             .  0 

n.   EUGKNICS   IN  ANCIENT  TIMES                .             .  25 
ni.   SIB  FRANCIS  GALTON  AND  THS  SPREAD  OF 

EUGENICS   AT  THE   PRESENT  DAY                ,  88 

IV.   EVOLUTION  AND   EUGENICS        ...  57 

V.   BIENDEUSH     ......  82 

VI.   THE  STATISTICAL  STUDY  OF  INHERITANCE      .  107 
VII.    THE   INHERITANCE   OF   ABILITY              .              .185 
VIII.   TUBERCtHX)SIS,  INSANITY,  FEEBLE-MINDED- 

NESS,   AND   EPILEPSY                 .             .             .  162 

rx.   THE  INFLUENCE  OP  THE  ENVIRONMENT       .  180 

X.   THE   SELECTIVE  AGENCIES           .             .             .  207 
XI.   SOCIAL  CONTROL,  AND  SUGGESTIONS  FOR  A 

PRACTICAL  POLICY         ....  235 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 258 

INDEX 260 


Eugenics 

CHAPTER  I 

INTRODUCTION 

Those  who  seek  to  introduce  a  fresh  policy 
into  the  regulation  of  human  affairs  must 
have  clearly  before  them  what  end  they 
desire  to  attain  by  so  doing;  and  if  they 
wish  to  commend  their  policy  to  the 
majority,  they  should  be  prepared  to  demon- 
strate that  the  end  itself  is  desirable,  and 
that  by  the  means  proposed  there  is  some 
hope  of  moving  towards  it.  There  are  some 
who  would  claim  that  the  ultimate  goal  of 
Eugenics  is  a  patriotic  one — ^namely,  to 
increase  the  commercial  and  fighting  effi- 
ciency of  the  nation.  We  do  not,  however, 
intend  to  advocate  it  on  these  grounds,  but 
would  rather  recommend  it  as  a  road  to 
increased  happiness  for  the  human  race;  or, 
at  any  rate,  as  a  means  of  preventing  much 
unnecessary  misery. 

Sanitation,  education,  and  the  arts  of 
medicine  and  surgery,  to  name  some  of 
the  lines  of  progress  along  which  mankind 
has    moved    during  the  last  century,   have 


10  EUGENICS 

essentially  the  same  end.  They  endeavour 
to  accomplish  it  by  enabling  each  individual 
born  into  the  world  to  develop  the  best  that 
is  in  his  nature,  both  of  the  body  and  of  the 
mind,  so  that  his  life  may  be  lived  with 
satisfaction  to  himself  and  profit  to  the 
community,  and  that  it  may  be  unspoilt  by 
accident  or  disease  and  unhampered  by 
ignorance  or  vice. 

At  present,  'the  best  that  is  in  his  nature* 
is  often  a  poor  thing.  Eugenics  aims  at 
making  it  a  little  better  by  whatever  means 
may  prove  practicable.  In  this  it  differs 
from,  and  goes  farther  than,  the  agencies 
enumerated,  whose  efforts  it  seeks  to  supple- 
ment, but  not  to  supersede.  Eugenists  form 
no  homogeneous  sect  or  party,  recognise  no 
common  leader,  are  confined  to  no  country, 
and  differ  widely  in  their  methods  and 
beliefs;  but  they  appear  to  the  present 
writer  to  subscribe  implicitly,  if  not  explicitly, 
to  a  common  creed,  which  may  be  outlined 
as  follows  : — Each  individual,  as  he  passes 
through  life  to  its  end  in  death,  derives  his 
active  qualities  at  each  moment,  of  what- 
ever nature  they  may  be,  from  the  inter- 
action of  two  separate,  yet  not  wholly 
independent,  causes.  The  one  may  be 
called  his  inborn  potentiality  or  capacity 
for  development;  the  other  the  environment, 
or  the  mental,  moral,  and  physical  surround- 
ings in  which  his  life  is  spent. 


EUGENICS  11 

The  inborn  potentiality  may  have  a 
material  basis  in  the  chemical  or  mechanical 
constitution  of  the  body,  or  some  part  or 
parts  of  it,  or  may  depend  on  some  mysterious 
property  of  living  matter,  unknown  entirely 
to  physical  science.  We  need  form  no 
opinion  of  its  ultimate  nature,  yet  may 
agree  that  it  is  largely  derived  from  a  similar 
capacity  inherent  in  the  parents  or  ancestry. 
This  is  the  true  meaning  of  heredity.  We 
have  no  direct  means  of  judging  what  poten- 
tialities are  present  in  any  individual  case, 
but  can  only  observe  what  active  qualities 
of  body  or  mind  present  themselves,  and 
accordingly  the  outward  manifestation  of 
heredity  is  the  similarity  shown  between 
parents  and  children,  ancestors  and  descend- 
ants, with  regard  to  these.  The  inborn 
potentiaHty  has  been  called  'nature,'  while 
the  term  'nurture'  has  been  used  to  denote 
the  environment  which  works  on  it  as  it 
unfolds  into  recognisable  qualities.  Both 
these  terms  lack  something  in  precision,  and 
have  degenerated  into  catch- words;  yet,  as 
there  is  nothing  better  to  substitute  for 
them,  they  will  be  used  in  the  senses  just 
defined. 

Eugenists  differ  from  others  who  may 
equally  have  the  good  of  mankind  at  heart, 
in  that  they  assign  a  greater  relative  weight 
to  nature;  they  believe  that  the  greatest 
good  of  the  greatest  number  may  be  achieved 


12  EUGENICS 

by  selecting  as  far  as  possible  the  best  that 
is  provided  by  nature,  although  they  may  also 
strive  to  effect  improvements  in  nm-ture. 
They  believe  that  if  among  men  and  women 
those  who  are  by  nature  better  in  mind  and 
body  leave  more  progeny  behind  them  than 
those  who  are  worse,  mankind  will  enter 
into  a  continuous  advance  towards  increased 
happiness.  The  enormous  and  indisputable 
changes  produced  by  artificial  selection  in 
domestic  animals,  as  well  as  the  incom- 
parably greater  changes  in  wild  animals, 
attributed  by  the  Darwinian  theory  to 
natural  selection,  are  evidence  of  a  weapon 
ready  to  the  hand  of  him  who  can  wield  it. 
The  Eugenist  does  not  wish  to  follow  blindly 
the  methods  employed  either  in  the  one  case 
or  the  other,  but  rather  to  devise  some 
course  of  action  which  is  suited  to  human 
conditions  as  we  know  them;  not  to  ride 
rough-shod  over  the  spiritual  feelings  and 
aspirations  of  mankind,  but  to  take  all  into 
account  and  to  seek  a  use  for  all. 

The  foregoing  remarks  may  be  taken  as 
roughly  indicating  what  Eugenics  is  in  so 
far  as  the  word  is  used  to  denote  a  belief,  or 
rather  an  ideal.  As  a  belief  it  is  somewhat 
vague,  and  one  which  needs  to  be  made 
much  more  definite  before  it  can  be  trans- 
lated into  a  practical  policy.  It  is  here  that 
the  science  of  Eugenics  must  be  called  to 
our  aid :    a  science  defined  by  Sir  Francis 


EUGENICS  13 

Galton  as  'the  study  of  those  agencies  under 
social  control,  which  may  improve  or  impair 
the  racial  qualities  of  future  generations, 
either  physically  or  mentally.'  The  words 
*  social  control'  should  be  taken  to  indicate 
that  the  practical  bearing  of  the  study  must 
not  be  lost  sight  of.  It  has  for  its  aim  the 
discovery  of  means  by  which  social  control 
may  be  applied  for  the  improvement  of  the 
race.  If  we  were  to  limit  oiu'selves  too  rigidly 
by  the  definition,  and  in  practice  only  to 
study  agencies  which  we  know  to  be  under 
social  control,  little  progress  would  be  made, 
for  we  cannot  tell  until  after  the  study  has 
been  completed  what  natural  laws  or  social 
reactions  can  be  consciously  controlled  by 
the  individual  or  collective  wills  of  any 
human  group. 

The  endeavour  must  be  made  to  under- 
stand as  completely  as  possible  all  those 
forces,  whether  they  be  customs,  economic 
relations,  habits  of  life,  or  bearers  of  death, 
which  may  affect  the  nature  of  these 
thousands  who  are  daily  born,  either  by 
altering  for  good  or  evil  the  qualities  of 
individuals,  or  by  increasing  or  diminishing 
the  proportion  of  the  better  to  the  worse. 

We  are  told  by  some  that  there  is  no  science 
of  Eugenics,  but  those  who  say  so  either 
define  the  term  in  some  special  way  or  have 
not  followed  the  work  which  has  been  done 
in  the  subject  in  recent  years.     A  common 


14  EUGENICS 

dictionary  definition  of  a  science  is  that  it  is 
a  'department  of  knowledge  reduced  to 
system';  but  this  definition  neglects  the 
idea  of  growth  and  change  which  are  essential 
features  of  a  living  science.  The  knowledge 
must  be  systematised  in  such  a  way  as  to 
show  where  fresh  material  is  needed  and  to 
facilitate  its  acquisition.  That  there  is  a 
science  of  Eugenics  in  this  sense  can  fairly 
be  claimed,  although  it  is  merely  a  founda- 
tion built  with  borrowed  capital;  but  there 
is  no  mortgage  on  the  building,  no  interest 
to  pay,  and  no  principal  to  refund,  for 
wealth  of  this  kind  may  be  borrowed  freely 
as  often  as  it  is  wanted. 

Already  many  facts,  inferences,  and  hypo- 
theses have  been  placed  in  orderly  array, 
and  many  problems  have  been  defined  which, 
like  the  architect's  plans,  should  guide  the 
further  labour  of  the  builders.  It  is  the  prin- 
cipal purpose  of  this  volume  to  describe 
the  former  and  define  the  latter  in  so  far  as 
it  may  be  possible  within  the  necessary 
limits.  At  the  outset  it  may  be  as  well  to 
pass  in  brief  review  the  problems  with  which 
we  have  to  deal. 

First  among  these  comes  heredity.  The 
dictionary  tells  us  that  this  is  'the  trans- 
mission of  characters  or  qualities  of  parents 
to  their  offspring.'  We  will  not  for  the 
moment  quarrel  with  this  definition;  although 
it  is  not  in  accordance  with  modern  scientific 


EUGENICS  15 

views,  it  expresses  roughly  the  older  ideas  on 
the  subject  and  the  popular  opinion  of  the 
present  day.  Undoubtedly  heredity  mani- 
fests itself  in  the  apparent  transmission  of 
characters  or  qualities  of  parents  to  their 
children,  and,  in  consequence,  two  questions 
or  groups  of  questions  are  raised.  In  the 
first  place,  to  what  extent  and  in  what 
manner  does  this  transmission  occur,  and 
what  kind  of  characters  or  quaUties  are 
transmitted;  secondly,  by  what  mechanism 
is  the  transmission  brought  about. 

Heredity  is  placed  first  among  the  con- 
stituent parts  of  the  science  of  Eugenics 
because,  more  than  any  other  agency,  it 
moulds  the  racial  characters  of  future  genera- 
tions. About  this  there  can  be  no  dispute. 
Without  heredity,  reproduction  would  be 
inconceivable,  since  the  very  term  reproduc- 
tion implies  that  like  produces  like;  and 
without  reproduction  there  would  not  be 
any  future  generations  of  mankind.  This 
may  appear  to  be  a  fallacy,  but  it  is  not  in 
reality.  The  appearance  is  due  to  the  fact 
that  the  word  heredity  has  been  used  in  a 
different  and  truer  sense  to  that  with  which 
we  are  most  familiar.  The  qualities  which 
strike  our  attention  as  being  inherited  are 
those  which  are  not  common  attributes  of 
the  race,  species,  or  variety,  but  are  peculi- 
arities shown  both  by  the  apparent  trans- 
mitter and  the  inheritor.     Thus,  when  one 


16  EUGENICS 

talks  of  heredity,  one  usually  means  the 
transmission  of  some  peculiarity  or  special 
feature;  but  the  common  characters  of  the 
species  or  larger  groups  are  as  truly  and  more 
surely  inherited,  and  if  this  were  not  so  one 
could  not  talk  of  reproduction  at  all;  there 
would,  in  fact,  be  no  reproduction,  though 
fresh  living  things  might  be  produced. 

Heredity  may  be  looked  on  as  the  agency 
principally  concerned  in  determining  'nature* 
or  the  inborn  potentiality.  The  next  main 
question  concerns  nurture.  Stated  in  a  very 
simple  way,  it  runs  thus :  '  How  far  can 
differences  of  nurture  acting  on  natures  of  an 
exactly  similar  kind  produce  realised  differ- 
ences of  quality?'  Or  in  a  more  concrete 
form  one  might  ask  to  what  extent  are  the 
great  differences  which  we  observe  in  the 
appearance,  intellect,  health,  habits,  and 
morals  of  human  beings  due  to  differences  in 
their  bringing  up  and  in  all  the  outside 
influences  working  on  them,  and  to  what 
extent  are  they  due  to  their  diverse  inborn 
potentialities?  Such  questions  are  among 
the  hardest  problems  to  be  faced;  but  in  order 
to  establish  a  case  for  Eugenics  it  is  not 
necessary  to  find  a  complete  solution.  It 
must,  however,  be  shown  that  a  considerable 
part  of  the  differences  referred  to  are  due  to 
*  nature.' 

We  can  pass  on  from  these  to  another 
group  of  problems  centred  round  the  question  : 


EUGENICS  17 

Will  the  outside  environment  acting  on  the 
parents  affect  them  in  such  a  way  that  the 
nature  of  the  children  will  be  altered?  As 
a  particular  example,  we  may  take  the 
inquiry  into  the  influence  of  parental  alco- 
holism in  the  offspring,  about  which  so 
much  controversy  has  raged  during  the  last 
two  years. 

The  next  division  of  the  subject  concerns 
neither  nature  nor  nurture,  but  selection. 
Classify  the  human  race  how  one  may,  if 
each  class  reproduces  itself  at  exactly  the 
same  rate  heredity  would  have  no  action  on 
future  generations,  whether  for  good  or  evil. 
But  directly  any  sort  of  selection  of  par- 
ticular classes  occurs,  of  such  a  kind  that 
they  multiply  at  it  may  be  only  a  slightly 
higher  rate  than  the  rest,  then  heredity 
becomes  a  potent  force  in  altering  the  destiny 
of  mankind.  In  the  first  case  it  ensures  con- 
stancy, and  the  second  change.  Thus,  in 
addition  to  heredity,  the  selective  agencies 
call  for  the  earnest  attention  of  Eugenists. 
These  may  be  defined  as  the  forces,  tenden- 
cies, or  events,  whatever  they  may  be, 
whether  social  customs,  or  economic  pressure, 
or  accidents  of  various  kinds,  affecting  man- 
kind in  such  a  way  that  certain  classes  or 
groups  of  individuals  reproduce  themselves  at 
a  higher  or  a  lower  rate  than  the  rest.  We 
probably  recognise  only  a  few  of  the  selective 
agencies,  but  we  are  beginning  to  find  out 


18  EUGENICS 

something  about  some  of  them,  and  of  these 
the  differential  birth-rate  may  be  ranked  as 
the  most  important. 

The  difference  between  the  birth-rate  and 
the  death-rate  of  any  group  would  give  its 
rate  of  increase  if  it  were  isolated,  that  is  to 
say  if  it  could  not  increase  its  numbers  by 
immigration  or  reduce  them  by  emigration 
of  one  kind  or  another.  Thus  the  importance 
of  the  birth-rate  will  easily  be  understood. 
The  birth-rate  itself  depends  on  things,  such 
as  the  proportion  of  people  who  marry,  the 
average  number  of  children  per  marriage,  and 
the  duration  of  time  between  successive 
generations.  Its  differentiating  action  can  be 
of  many  different  kinds.  It  may  cause  one 
nation  to  increase  at  a  higher  rate  than  others. 
It  might,  and  is  indeed  supposed  to,  affect 
the  relative  increase  of  different  social  classes, 
and  of  differeiit  religious  or  racial  groups 
^vithin  the  limits  of  a  single  nation;  and, 
finally,  within  each  of  these  classes  or  groups, 
individuals  with  particular  characteristics 
might  through  this  agency  tend  either  to 
multiply  or  to  die  out. 

After  classifying  mankind  in  any  or  every 
way.  Eugenics  should  therefore  concern  itself 
to  discover  which  classes  a  high  birth-rate  is 
assisting  to  multiply  more  rapidly  than  others. 
It  can  then  set  about  a  problem  of  a  different 
type,  and  obtain  information  without  which 
the  question  of  the  relative  increase  of  different 


EUGENICS  19 

classes  would  be  of  very  slight  interest.  The 
problem  can  be  stated  more  easily  by  giving 
concrete  examples.  It  is  said  that  the 
higher  social  classes  reproduce  themselves 
at  a  lower  rate  than  the  rest,  and  thus  that 
society  is  always  recruiting  itself  from  below. 
Let  us  grant  that  we  know  this  for  certain, 
yet  in  order  to  determine  whether  it  is  a  fact 
of  Eugenic  value  as  tending  to  improve 
mentally  and  physically  the  racial  qualities 
of  future  generations,  or  dysgenic  in  its 
action  as  tending  to  impair  them,  it  is  neces- 
sary to  determine  whether  or  no  the  higher 
classes  have  a  heritable  superiority  in  body 
or  mind.  Similarly,  when  we  are  told  that 
Roman  Catholics  have  larger  families  than 
Protestants,  we  want  to  know  whether  their 
religious  beliefs  are  merely  accidental  or 
whether  they  spring  in  part  from  some  inborn 
intellectual  or  emotional  peculiarity.  If  the 
latter  is  the  case,  we  must  further  ascertain 
whether  such  characteristics  are  likely  by 
their  perpetuation  and  multiplication  to 
benefit  mankind  or  not. 

In  the  study  of  these  questions  Eugenics 
must  borrow  from  physical  anthropology  and 
the  modem  psychology,  which  proceeds  by 
observation  and  experiment;  and,  above 
all  things,  it  must  endeavour  to  determine 
the  relative  parts  played  by  'nature'  and 
*  nurture.*  We  thus  get  back  again  to  a 
branch  of  the  subject  that  has  already  been 


20  EUGENICS 

referred  to  and  for  the  time  dismissed,  and 
this  shows  how  closely  bound  together  the 
whole  subject  is,  and  how  impossible  it  is  to 
subdivide  it  in  a  really  logical  manner. 

A  consideration  of  differences  in  birth- 
rate leads  on  to  the  discussion  of  their  causes. 
How  far  are  they  due  to  differences  in  natural 
fertility?    How  far  to  other  factors? 

No  less  effectively  than  the  birth-rate  the 
death-rate  may  be  selective  on  its  action. 
For  instance,  it  is  urged  by  some  that  the 
mortality  which  is  always  heavy  among 
infants  may  actually  tend  to  improve  the 
physique  of  the  race  by  removing  those  who 
are  on  the  whole  weaker  than  the  survivors. 
If  this  is  the  case,  it  is  an  instance  of  a  selec- 
tive death-rate  acting  on  the  whole  in  a 
Eugenic  manner.  Other  authorities  point  out 
that  as  the  components  of  an  army  at  the 
time  of  a  great  war  are  on  the  whole  superior 
in  physique  to  those  who  follow  occupations 
at  home,  the  death-rate  of  a  large  proportion 
of  them,  taken  more  or  less  at  random,  on 
the  battle-field  or  in  the  camp,  will  have 
selective  action  of  an  exactly  opposite  kind, 
in  that  the  better  will  be  taken  and  the  worse 
be  left.  The  death-rate  from  particular 
diseases  may  be  selective  primarily  in  its 
tendency  to  remove  those  persons  most 
liable  to  it,  but  secondarily  if  any  special 
«iental  or  physical  quality  is  associated  with 
the  tendency. 


EUGENICS  n 

Any  practice  which  encourages  or  dis- 
courages marriage  among  certain  classes  may 
be  selective  in  its  action  if  the  classes  affected 
differ  in  some  respect  from  the  average. 
A  modem  example  of  this  may  be  found  in 
aviation.  The  army  regulations  discourage 
marriage  among  the  military  aeroplanists; 
thus  a  small  body  of  men  highly  endowed 
with  many  noble  quaUties  are  prevented 
from  reproducing  their  kind.  This  is  not 
brought  forward  in  any  way  as  a  criticism  of 
the  regulation  referred  to,  which  is  no  doubt 
perfectly  wise,  but  merely  as  an  example  of 
marriage  selection.  Its  dysgenic  conse- 
quences fade  into  insignificance  before  those 
of  the  appalling  death-rate  among  aviators. 
Among  the  older  instances  of  marriage  selec- 
tion possibly  dysgenic  in  effect  was  that  set 
up  by  the  regulations,  now  largely  relaxed, 
which  confined  the  holding  of  fellowships  at 
Oxford  or  Cambridge  Colleges  to  bachelors; 
while  the  celibacy  of  the  priests  in  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church  may  also  have  had  a  tendency 
to  weed  certain  qualities  out. 

A  historian  wishing  to  advance  the  study 
of  Eugenics  could  perform  no  more  useful 
task  than  to  trace  the  effect  of  any  of  such 
selective  agencies  as  have  here  been  referred 
to  on  the  rise  or  fall  of  some  race  or 
nationality. 

Let  us  take  as  the  next  branch  of  the  sub- 
ject the  causation  of  some  special  qualities 


22  EUGENICS 

which  seriously  influence  the  welfare  of  the 
race.  Idiocy,  Insanity,  Tuberculosis,  on 
the  one  hand,  and  general  or  special  ability 
on  the  other,  may  all  be  reckoned  as  belonging 
to  this  class.  The  same  questions  recur 
concerning  them  :  How  much  are  they  due 
to  nature,  how  much  to  nurture?  If  among 
the  forces  that  produce  them  some  are  in- 
born, to  what  extent  are  these  transmitted 
by  inheritance,  and  in  what  manner? 

As  a  preface  to  the  practical  application  of 
anything  that  Eugenics  may  teach,  it  is 
necessary  to  consider  it  in  yet  another  way. 
Hitherto  many  questions  have  been  out- 
lined, and  as  it  will  be  seen  later  to  only 
a  few  can  answers  be  given;  but  one  problem, 
and  that  one  of  the  most  vital,  has  not  been 
touched  on.  How  can  any  of  the  agencies 
under  consideration  be  consciously  and 
deliberately  controlled?  To  what  extent 
and  in  what  direction  are  laws  effective? 
What  social  customs  or  economic  conditions 
make  for  racial  improvement,  and  how  can 
they  be  extended?  It  is  necessary  to  investi- 
gate existing  conditions  and  to  analyse  their 
tendencies  to  see  how  they  may  have  acted 
in  the  past,  and  with  what  results.  Marriage 
laws  and  customs  should  receive  the  par- 
ticular attention  of  Eugenists,  though  many 
other  social  phenomena  may  have  almost  as 
direct  and  as  far-reaching  an  influence. 

But    besides    describing    what    is    or    has 


EUGENICS  28 

been,  it  may  be  needful  to  discuss  suggestions 
for  future  action.  In  this  connection  it  is 
necessary  to  state  emphatically  that  legisla- 
tion for  Eugenic  purposes  is  advocated  by 
very  few  Eugenists.  The  majority  would 
view  the  introduction  of  laws  of  this  kind 
with  profound  distrust.  When  legislation  of 
any  particular  kind  for  Eugenic  purposes  is 
being  discussed,  it  is  assumed  by  their  critics 
that  Eugenists  necessarily  advocate  it.  As 
it  is  often  both  futile  and  antagonistic  to  some 
principle  of  tried  and  recognised  value,  the 
spread  of  Eugenic  ideals  may  be  seriously 
impeded  by  such  an  assumption.  So  it  is 
necessary  to  insist  that  the  acceptance  of 
these  ideals  does  not  imply  adherence  to  any 
public  policy  of  any  kind  whatsoever  or 
approval  of  any  special  propaganda. 

SUMMARY   OF   CHAPTER 

Eugenics  has  for  its  ultimate  object,  no 
less  than  other  means  by  which  civilisation 
advances,  the  betterment  in  body  and  mind 
of  the  human  breed.  The  methods  on  which 
Eugenists  rely  aim  at  influencing  the  inborn 
nature  of  men  rather  than  improving  the 
external  conditions.  They  are  not  to  be 
regarded  as  antagonistic  to,  but  rather  as 
supplementing,  such  agencies  as  sanitation, 
education,  and  the  varied  arts  of  medicine. 
For  the  effective  realisation  of  the  Eugenic 


24  EUGENICS 

ideal  a  science  of  Eugenics  is  necessary,  and 
of  this  science  the  foundations  have  already 
been  laid.  The  questions  which  it  is  expected 
to  answer  are  reviewed  under  six  headings, 
but  it  is  not  claimed  that  they  have  been 
logically  or  exhaustively  classified.  They  are 
briefly  recapitulated  below  : — 

(i.)  Heredity.  To  what  extent  and  in 
what  manner  does  the  hereditary  transmission 
of  characters  occur,  and  by  what  mechanism 
is  it  effected? 

(ii.)  In  the  development  of  individuals, 
what  share  is  taken  by  *  nature'  and  what 
by  'nurture'? 

(ill.)  In  what  manner  and  to  what  extent 
does  the  parental  environment  directly  act 
on  the  'nature'  of  the  children? 

(rv.)  What  influences  can  be  detected 
which  tend  to  increase  or  decrease  the  rate 
of  multiplication  of  particular  classes  or 
races  or  groups  of  men  having  any  differenti- 
ating characters  in  common?  (This  question 
raises  a  large  number  of  subsidiary  ones.) 

(v.)  What  causes  bring  about  the  advance 
or  decline  in  the  prevalence  of  special  char- 
acters which  we  know  or  believe  to  be  good 
or  bad? 

(vi.)  How  can  social  control  be  applied  to 
*  improve  the  racial  qualities  of  future  genera- 
tions, either  physically  or  mentally'? 


EUGENICS  25 

CHAPTER  II 

EUGENICS   IN   ANCIENT  TIMES 

Eugenics  is  no  new  idea.  It  is  suggested  in 
the  following  passage  taken  from  the  works 
of  the  Greek  poet  Theognis  of  Megara,  who 
wrote  in  the  first  half  of  the  sixth  century  B.C. 
Addressing  his  friend  Cyrnus  {Elegies  1183- 
192),  he  sings  :  *We  look  for  rams  and  asses 
and  stallions  ©f  good  stock,*  and  one  believes 
that  good  will  come  from  good;  yet  a  good 
man  minds  not  to  wed  an  evil  daughter  of  an 
evil  sire,  if  he  but  give  her  much  wealth.  .  .  . 
Wealth  confounds  our  stock.  Marvel  not 
that  the  stock  of  our  folk  is  tarnished,  for 
good  is  mingling  with  the  base.*  About  a 
century  later  Eugenics  was  discussed  in 
some  detail  by  Plato  in  the  Republic  and  th« 
Laws.  In  the  former  of  these  works  Socrates 
is  represented  as  laying  down  conditions  for 
an  ideal  republic — ^the  first  Utopia.  The 
scheme  is  developed  in  a  series  of  conversa- 
tions with  friends  of  diverse  character,  who 
from  time  to  time  raise  objections  which 
Socrates   meets   with   much   cleverness   and 

*  It  is  interesting  that  the  word  ttye^ias  is  here  used. 
The  translation  is  by  Mr  A.  S.  L.  Farquharson  of  Uni- 
versity College,  Oxford,  who  kindly  called  my  attention 
to  the  passage. 

K-  B 


26  EUGENICS 

humour.  The  passage  in  which  the  idea  of 
selective  Eugenics  on  stock-raising  Hnes  is 
stated  with  the  greatest  clearness  is  a  dialogue 
between  Socrates  and  Glaucon.  Glaucon  is 
a  young  man  of  quick  penetration,  of  distinc- 
tion as  a  soldier,  and  experience  as  a  lover; 
fond  of  art  and  music,  and,  what  is  of  most 
importance  in  this  connection,  a  practical  and 
successful  breeder  of  dogs  and  birds. 

Socrates  says  to  him  : — ^ 

'And  how  can  marriages  be  made  most 
beneficial? — that  is  a  question  which  I  put 
to  you,  because  I  see  in  your  house  dogs  for 
hunting,  and  of  the  nobler  sort  of  birds  not 
a  few.  Now,  I  beseech  you,  do  tell  me,  have 
you  ever  attended  to  their  pairing  and 
breeding?' 

Glaucon. — In  what  particulars? 

S. — ^Why,  in  the  first  place,  although  they 
are  all  of  a  good  sort,  are  not  some  better 
than  others? 

G.— True. 

S. — And  do  you  breed  from  them  all 
indifferently,  or  do  you  take  care  to  breed 
from  the  best  only? 

G. — From  the  best. 

S. — And  do  you  take  the  oldest  or  youngest, 
or  only  those  of  ripe  age? 

G. — I  choose  only  those  of  ripe  age. 

S. — And   if    care    was    not    taken    in    the 

» Jowett,  Th*  Dialogues  of  Plato.  Vols.  III.  and  V. 
(Edition  3.^ 


EUGENICS  2T 

breeding,  your  dogs  and  birds  would  greatly 
deteriorate? 

G. — Certainly. 

S. — And  the  same  of  horses  and  animals 
in  general? 

G.— Undoubtedly. 

After  some  further  conversation  Socrates 
arrives  at  the  conclusion  that  the  rulers  of 
his  ideal  republic  would  have  to  manipulate 
the  imions  of  the  citizens  in  such  a  way  that 
the  best  of  them  should  have  the  best  mates, 
and  the  worst  should  intermarry  among 
themselves.  To  avoid  all  the  unpleasantness 
which  he  foresaw  might  arise  from  too  much 
interference  of  the  rulers  in  such  a  delicate 
matter,  it  would  be  absolutely  necessary 
that  the  citizens  should  know  nothing  what- 
ever about  it.  So  it  is  suggested  that  persons 
of  marriageable  age  should  be  brought  to- 
gether at  semi-religious  festivals,  where,  to 
the  accompaniment  of  suitable  hymeneal 
songs,  they  would  draw  lots  for  their  mates. 
But  Socrates  goes  on  to  say  :  '  We  shall  have 
to  invent  some  ingenious  kind  of  lots  which 
the  less  worthy  may  draw  on  each  occasion 
of  our  bringing  them  together,  and  then  they 
will  accuse  their  own  ill-luck  and  not  the 
rulers.' 

The  less  worthy,  after  being  cheated  into 
putting  up  with  marriages  against  their 
inclinations,  were  not  prevented  from  repro- 
duction, but  good  care  was  taken  that  their 


28  EUGENICS 

infants  should  not  grow  up  in  the  republic. 
As  for  other  reasons  it  was  thought  most 
desirable  that  all  children  should  be  brought 
up  together  in  public  crbehes,  and  that  no 
parents  should  know  which  children  were 
theirs,  this  little  matter  could  be  easily 
attended  to,  for  Socrates  suggests  *  The  proper 
officers  will  take  the  offspring  of  the  good 
parents  to  the  pen  or  fold,  and  there  they 
will  deposit  them  with  certain  nurses  who 
dwell  in  a  separate  quarter;  but  the  offspring 
of  the  inferior,  or  of  the  better  when  they 
chance  to  be  deformed,  wiU  be  put  away  in 
some  mysterious  unknown  places,  as  they 
should  be/ 

The  children  were  to  be  suckled  by  the 
mothers,  but  care  was  to  be  taken  that  no 
mother  recognised  her  own  child.  'Care  will 
also  be  taken  that  the  process  of  suckling  is 
not  continued  too  long,  and  the  mothers  will 
have  no  getting  up  at  night  or  other  trouble, 
but  will  hand  over  all  this  sort  of  thing  to 
the  nurses  and  attendants.*  In  order  to 
prevent  immature  or  senile  parents*  from 
having  children,  only  women  between  twenty 
and  forty  years  of  age,  and  men  between 
twenty-five  and  fifty-five,  were  to  be  allowed 
to  attend  the  hymeneal  festivals,  and  the 
total  number  of  marriages  was  to  be  regulated 

*  The  importance  of  marrying  in  one's  prime  had  no  doubt 
Ijeen  recognised  much  earlier  by  the  Gnomic  Poets  of  Greece 
(see  Hesiod,  Works  and  Days,  line  695  and  following). 


EUGENICS  29 

in  such  a  way  as  to  keep  the  numbers  of  the 
population  at  the  most  suitable  level. 

In  time  of  war,  those  who  distinguished 
themselves  in  battle  were  to  be  rewarded  by 
State  aid  in  their  love  affairs.  *The  brave 
man  is  to  have  more  wives  than  others;* 
*he  is  to  have  first  choice  in  such  matters 
more  than  others,  in  order  that  he  may  have 
as  many  children  as  possible.*  Thus  we  see 
that  Plato  suggests  both  the  abolition  of 
the  household  and  polygamy  for  Eugenic 
purposes. 

The  relation  between  medicine  and 
Eugenics  is  often  discussed  at  the  present 
day,  and  some  people  maintain  that  in  so  \ 
far  as  medical  aid  allows  the  weak  and  sickly  | 
to  survive  and  propagate  their  kind,  it  may 
in  benefiting  the  individual  do  harm  to  the 
race.  This  was  the  view  expressed  very 
clearly  by  Plato ;  in  a  half -humorous  passage 
he  compares  the  older  system  of  medicine 
with  that  practised  in  his  own  day,  much  to 
the  advantage  of  the  former.  The  following 
extracts  of  the  remarks  which  he  puts  into 
the  mouth  of  Socrates  give  the  gist  of  his 
meaning : — 

*If  Asclepius  (by  whom  he  typifies  the 
older  school)  did  not  instruct  his  descendants 
in  valetudinarian  arts,  the  omission  arose, 
not  from  ignorance  or  inexperience  of  such 
a  branch  of  medicine,  but  because  he  knew  that 
in  all   well-ordered    States  every  individual 


30  EUGENICS 

has  an  occupation  to  which  he  must  attend, 
and  has,  therefore,  no  leisure  to  spend  in 
continually  being  ill.*  .  .  .  'And  therefore 
our  politic  Asclepius  may  be  supposed  to  have 
exhibited  the  power  of  his  art  only  to  persons 
who,  being  generally  of  healthy  constitution 
and  habits  of  life,  had  a  definite  ailment; 
such  as  these  he  cured  by  purges  and  opera- 
tions, and  bade  them  live  as  usual,  herein 
consulting  the  interests  of  the  State;  but 
bodies  which  disease  had  penetrated  through 
and  through  he  would  not  have  attempted 
to  cure  by  gradual  processes  of  evacuation 
and  infusion  :  he  did  not  want  to  lengthen 
out  good-for-nothing  lives,  or  to  have  weak 
fathers  begetting  weaker  sons.' 

Selective  Eugenics  was  to  be  assisted  by 
Lamarckian  Eugenics.  'For  good  nurture 
and  education  implant  good  constitutions, 
and  these  good  constitutions  taking  root  in 
a  good  education  improve  more  and  more, 
and  this  improvement  affects  the  breed  in 
man  as  in  other  animals.* 

The  idea  of  Eugenics  is  further  developed 
in  the  Laws,  in  which  work  also  an  ideal 
scheme  of  government  is  suggested.  This 
differs  from  that  proposed  in  the  Republic, 
in  that  the  monogamous  household  is  retained 
in  a  shadowy  form.  It  will  be  seen  that  on 
many  points  modem  ideas  are  foreshadowed 
with  curious  exactness.  The  taxation  of 
bachelors,    for    example,    has    many    serious 


EUGENICS  81 

advocates  at  the  present  day,  whose  ideas 
could  hardly  be  expressed  more  clearly  than 
in  the  following  passage :  '  He  .  .  .  who 
does  not  marry  when  he  has  arrived  at  the 
age  of  thirty-five,  shall  pay  a  yearly  fine  of 
a  certain  amomit,  in  order  that  his  celibacy 
may  not  be  a  source  of  ease  and  profit  to 
him.'  The  object  of  this  suggested  regula- 
tion was  not  to  maintain  the  birth-rate  at 
a  satisfactory  level,  but  rather  to  check  the 
*  impiety'  of  refusing  so  good  a  gift  as  a  wife 
and  children. 

Plato's  treatment  of  'Alcohol  and  Eugenics* 
should  also  warmly  commend  itself  to  many 
modem  exponents  of  the  dangers  of  alco- 
holism. 'Drunkenness  is  always  improper, 
except  at  the  festivals  of  the  God  who  gave 
wine;  and  peculiarly  dangerous  when  a  man 
is  engaged  in  the  business  of  marriage,  for 
at  such  a  crisis  in  their  lives  a  bride  and  bride- 
groom ought  to  have  all  their  wits  about 
them,  and  they  ought  to  take  care  that  their 
offspring  may  be  born  of  reasonable  beings; 
and  who  can  tell  on  what  day  or  night 
Heaven  will  give  them  increase?  Moreover, 
they  ought  not  to  be  begetting  children 
when  their  bodies  are  dissipated  by  intoxica- 
tion, but  their  offspring  should  be  compact 
and  solid,  quiet,  and  compounded  properly; 
whereas  the  drunkard  is  all  abroad  in  all  his 
actions,  and  is  beside  himself  both  in  body 
and  soul.    Wherefore,  also,  the  drimken  man 


82  EUGENICS 

is  bad  and  unsteady  in  sowing  the  seed  of 
increase,  and  is  likely  to  beget  offspring  who 
will  be  unstable  and  untrustworthy,  and 
cannot  be  expected  to  walk  straight  either 
in  body  or  mind.' 

It  is  not  altogether  clear  whether  Plato 
means  that  the  general  effect  of  parental 
alcoholism  in  the  offspring  is  deleterious,  or 
that  the  danger  principally  lies  in  the  pro- 
creation of  children  during  moments  of 
intoxication  ;  or  again,  whether  he  fears 
that  the  moral  effects  of  habitual  drunken- 
ness on  the  drunkard  are  likely  to  be  inherited. 

Temperance  reformers  at  the  present  day 
are  alive  to  the  possibility  of  the  second  of 
these  three  alternatives;  but  the  view  that 
habitual  alcoholism  on  the  part  of  the 
parents  has  the  effect  of  poisoning  the  germ- 
plasm^  out  of  which  their  children  are  formed, 
and  thus  causing  defects,  is  held  more  widely. 

With  regard  to  the  choice  of  mates,  Plato 
gives  in  the  Laws  the  following  advice, 
which  has  a  definitely  Eugenic  purpose;—*- 
'People  must  be  acquainted  with  those  into 
whose  families  they  marry,  and  to  whom 
they  are  given  in  marriage ;  in  such  matters 
as  far  as  possible  to  avoid  mistakes  is  all- 
important,  and  with  this  serious  purpose 
let  games  be  instituted  in  which  youths  and 
maidens  shall  dance  together,  seeing  and 
being  seen  naked,  at  a  proper  age  and  on 

*  Vide  Chapter  IV.   for  definition  of  germplasm. 


EUGENICS  88 

a  suitable  occasion,  not  transgressing  the 
rules  of  modesty.* 

He  further  goes  on  to  say  that  for  the 
benefit  of  the  State  one  should  avoid  the 
natural  inclination  to  marry  one  who  is 
similarly  situated  to  oneself,  both  with 
regard  to  personal  characteristics  and  to 
pecuniary  circumstances.  A  rich  man  should 
marry  into  a  poOT  family,  and  a  dull  man  into 
a  quick-witted  family.  An  equable  popula- 
tion without  too  much  diversity  in  mind, 
body,  or  estate  among  its  members  would 
thus  result.  After  marriage  *the  bride  and 
bridegroom  should  consider  that  they  are 
to  produce  for  the  State  the  best  and  fairest 
specimens  of  children  which  they  can.* 

The  Laws  was  written  some  time  after  the 
ItepvhliCyVihGD.  the  author  was  at  least  seventy- 
four  years  of  age,  and  from  the  extracts  here 
given  it  is  apparent  that  he  had  devoted 
a  great  deal  of  thought  to  the  problems  of 
Eugenics,  and  the  central  idea  that  it  would 
be  advantageous  to  the  community  that 
marriages  of  men  and  women  should  be 
arranged  so  as  to  produce  the  best  possible 
children  is  quite  clearly  and  definitely  stated. 
The  means  suggested  in  the  Republic  for 
bringing  this  about  were  not  intended  as 
a  scheme  practically  applicable  at  his  own 
day,  and  the  most  ironical  of  Greek  authors 
must  not  be  taken  too  literally. 

Many  of  the  details  of  Plato's  scheme  were 


31  EUGENICS 

criticised  by  Aristotle  in  the  Politics,  a  work 
also  dealing  with  the  art  of  government. 
But  Aristotle,  although  a  great  naturalist 
and  the  son  of  a  physician,  is  concerned  more 
with  the  political  than  with  the  biological 
aspect  of  the  question.  He  aims  rather  at 
securing  good  social  and  economic  conditions 
than  at  improving  the  human  breed.  Thus 
when  he  advocated  restrictions  on  the  increase 
of  population,  it  is  principally  on  the  ground 
that  too  rapid  an  increase  would  lead  to 
inequitable  distribution  of  property,  and 
secondly,  that  overwhelming  numbers  cannot 
be  reduced  to  order.  He  retains  the  family 
group  on  moral  grounds,  but  is  not  afraid  to 
claim  for  the  State  a  vigorous  control  of  its 
marriage  arrangements.  He  is  especially 
alive  to  the  desirability  of  making  the 
conditions  such  that  the  children  bom 
shall  be  as  healthy  as  possible,  and  for  this 
reason  discountenances  too  early  marriages. 
*  Marriage  at  a  youthful  age  has  a  prejudicial 
influence  upon  the  procreation  of  children. 
It  is  a  law  of  the  whole  animal  world  that  the 
offspring  of  youthful  parents  are  imperfectly 
developed,  are  apt  to  procreate  females,  and 
are  small  in  body,  and  we  must  conclude  the 
same  to  be  the  case  among  human  beings. 
We  infer  it  from  the  fact  that  in  all  States 
in  which  the  practice  of  youthful  marriage 
is  in  vogue,  the  citizens  are  imperfectly 
developed   and   small    in    stature.      Another 


EUGENICS  85 

objection  to  such  marriages  is  that  young 
women  are  greater  sufferers  in  travail,  and 
die  oftener.** 

He  also  expressed  an  opinion,  which  was 
shared  by  Pythagoras,  and  was  in  accord 
with  Greek  practice,  that  the  winter  is  the 
best  season  of  the  year  for  marriage,  and  he 
recommends  that  *The  parents  themselves, 
in  view  of  the  procreation  of  children,  should 
pay  attention  to  the  rules  of  physicians  and 
natural  philosophers,  the  former  of  whom 
are  competent  authorities  upon  the  occasions 
suitable  to  their  physical  condition,  and  the 
latter  upon  the  various  kinds  of  winds, 
northerly  winds  being  in  their  judgment 
preferable  to  southerly.' 

The  following  advice  to  mothers  is  un- 
questionably sound  : — '  Women  should  take 
care  of  their  bodily  health  during  pregnancy, 
not  leading  a  life  of  indolence,  nor  yet  adopt- 
ing a  scanty  diet.'  Aristotle  suggested  that 
they  should  be  prevented  by  law  from  leading 
a  life  of  too  great  indolence,  for  they  should 
be  compelled  to  take  daily  a  'certain  walk 
to  render  service  to  the  gods  whose  function 
it  is  to  preside  over  child-birth.'  As  the 
temples  of  these  divinities  were  placed  for 
ceremonial  reasons  without  the  walls  of 
many  Greek  cities,  the  constitutional  pre- 
scribed would  be  of  some  length.  He  goes 
on  to  say  that  'their  mind  .  .  .  should  be 

*  Weldoa's  translation  of  Aristotle's  Politics. 


86  EUGENICS 

at  such  a  time  comparatively  indolent  and 
free  from  anxiety ^  as  we  see  that  the  children 
are  affected  by  the  state  of  the  mother  during 
pregnancy  just  as  plants  by  the  condition  of 
the  soil.' 

One  other  writer,  namely  Campanella, 
should  be  mentioned  before  closing  this 
chapter,  because  he  is  regarded  by  Have- 
lock  Ellis  as  the  *  prophet  of  modem 
Eugenics.* 

Campanella  was  a  monk;  he  lived  at  the 
beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century,  and 
while  in  prison  wrote  a  book  entitled  The 
City  of  the  Sun,  in  which,  as  in  Plato's 
Republic  and  More's  Utopia,  an  ideal  state 
is  depicted.  To  judge  from  the  brief  account 
of  his  work,  which  appears  in  Havelock 
Ellis's  book.  The  Task  of  Social  Hygiene, 
his  ideas  on  Eugenics  were  taken  almost 
directly  from  Plato.  Only  valorous  and 
high-spirited  men  were  to  be  allowed  to 
procreate,  and  marriages,  when  made  for 
the  purpose  of  having  children,  were  to 
be  arranged  by  * "  The  Great  Master,"  a 
physician  aided  by  the  chief  matrons,  and 
the  public  exercises  of  the  youths  and 
maidens,  performed  in  a  state  of  nakedness, 
were  of  assistance  in  enabling  unions  to  be 
fittingly  made.*  The  inspiration  of  Plato 
appears  fairly  obvious  in  this  passage,  and 
it  is  difficult  to  see  that  Campanella  has 
improved  materially  on  Plato's  ideas. 


EUGENICS  87 

SUMMARY  OF  CHAPTER 

Eugenics  and  many  associated  problems 
are  discussed  in  two  of  the  works  of  Plato — 
namely,  the  Republic  and  the  Laws.  In  the 
former  the  possibility  of  improving  the 
human  breed  by  the  arrangement  of  suitable 
marriages,  in  something  the  same  way  as 
the  breeding  of  horses  and  hounds  is 
carried  on,  is  discussed  in  a  perfectly  clear 
manner. 

It  is  also  suggested  that  marriages  should 
be  confined  to  persons  of  suitable  ages,  that 
those  who  were  brave  in  battle  should  be 
rewarded  by  the  quantity  and  quality  of  the 
fair  placed  at  their  disposal  for  matrimonial 
purposes,  and  that  there  was  something  to 
be  said,  on  Eugenic  grounds,  against  a  system 
of  medicine  which  enabled  the  weak  and 
sickly  to  propagate  their  kind. 

In  the  Laws  it  is  proposed  to  place  a  tax 
on  bachelors,  over  thirty-five  years  of  age. 
The  special  dangers  of  parental  alcoholism 
are  pointed  out,  and  the  advantages  are 
insisted  on  of  having  the  fullest  oppor- 
tunities for  knowing  as  well  as  possible 
the  people  among  whom  one  is  going  to 
marry. 

Aristotle  also,  in  his  Politics,  urges  the 
desirability  of  arranging  the  conditions  of 
marriage  in  such  a  way  that  the  children 
born  should  be  as  healthy  as  possible. 


88  EUGENICS 

The  Eugenic  ideas  in  Campanella's  City 
of  the  Sun,  which  are  described  by  Have- 
lock  Ellis,  seem  to  be  taken  from  those 
of  Plato. 

CHAPTER  III 

SIR     FRANCIS     GALTON     AND    THE     SPREAD     OF 
EUGENICS    AT    THE    PRESENT     DAY 

Francis  Galton  was  born  near  Sparkbrook, 
Birmingham,  in  the  year  1822.  It  is  worth 
while  giving  some  account  of  his  life,  in  order 
to  show  how  wide  and  varied  was  the  experi- 
ence, and  how  thorough  the  knowledge  of 
life  which  led  him  to  found  and  further  the 
study  of  Eugenics.  His  Memories  of  my  Life 
is  the  principal  source  from  which  is  derived 
the  following  information. 

His  paternal  grandfather,  Samuel  John 
Galton,  was  a  Quaker  by  religion,  a  banker 
and  manufacturer  by  profession,  and  a 
scientist,  naturalist,  and  statistician  bv  incli- 
nation. He  made  a  considerable  fortune, 
partly  as  a  contractor  for  the  supply  of 
muskets  to  the  army  during  the  Napoleonic 
Wars. 

On  the  mother's  side  his  grandfather  was 
Dr  Erasmus  Darwin  ^  well  known  as  a 
physician,     poet,     and     philosopher,     whose 

*  This  information  is  derived  from  the  Dictionary  of 
National  Biography. 


EUGENICS  89 

poetical  works  dealt  largely  with  natural 
history.  One  of  them,  called  the  Botanic 
Garden^  included  parts  entitled  The  Lives  of 
the  Plants  and  the  Economy  of  Vegetation. 
In  his  prose  writings  he  propounded  a  theory 
of  Evolution  which  had  some  points  in 
common  with  that  of  Lamarck.  Erasmus 
Darwin  married  twice;  of  his  sons  by  the 
first  wife,  one,  Dr  Robert  Darwin,  was  the 
father  of  Charles  Darwin,  the  famous  natural- 
ist, who  in  his  turn  became  the  father  of  many 
distinguished  sons.  A  daughter  by  the 
second  wife,  who  married  Samuel  Tertius 
Galton,  was  Francis  Galton's  mother. 

Samuel  Tertius  Galton  was  the  eldest  son, 
and  carried  on  the  banking  business.  He 
also  had  the  taste  for  science  and  statistics 
shown  by  his  father,  and  to  a  more  marked 
degree  by  his  son  Francis. 

Francis  Galton's  early  education  was  of 
a  literary  kind,  conducted  by  an  invalid 
sister  considerably  older  than  himself;  but 
at  the  age  of  eight  he  was  sent  to  a  school 
at  Boulogne,  which  was  'hateful  to  him  in 
many  ways  and  lovable  in  none.*  He  stayed 
there  for  two  years  and  then  went  on  to  a 
small  private  school  at  Kenilworth,  from 
which,  at  the  age  of  fourteen,  he  passed 
to  King  Edward's  School  at  Birmingham. 
The  education  there  was  strictly  classical. 
Grammar  and  the  rudiments  of  Latin  and 
Greek  were  taught,  probably  well,  as  many 


40  EUGENICS 

good  scholars  were  turned  out  from  the 
school,  but  in  a  manner  which  failed  to  arouse 
Galton's  interest.  At  the  age  of  sixteen  he 
left  and  embarked  on  the  preparation  for  his 
chosen  profession  of  medicine.  The  medical 
curriculum  in  the  thirties  and  forties  of  last 
century  was  a  very  different  thing  to  what  it 
is  now,  particularly  in  that  practical  experi- 
ence was  obtained  before  the  theoretical 
training.  So  Galton  entered  the  Birmingham 
General  Hospital  as  an  indoor  pupil;  he 
found  the  work  interesting,  and  being  soon 
placed  in  a  position  of  considerable  responsi- 
bility as  dispenser  and  dresser,  often  had 
many  surgical  cases  at  the  same  time  under 
his  care.  The  account  of  his  experiences  there 
gives  one  a  very  lively  idea  of  the  nature  of 
surgical  treatment  at  that  time.  After 
leaving  the  Birmingham  hospital  he  went  to 
King's  College,  London,  where  he  remained 
up  till  the  age  of  eighteen  years,  attending 
lectures  on  science,  and  studying  medicine 
as  a  pupil  at  King's  College  Hospital. 

In  the  spring  of  1840  an  ardent  desire  for 
travel  seized  him,  and  his  father  arranged  that 
he  should  go  to  Giessen  to  attend  the  lectures 
of  the  famous  chemist,  Liebig.  He  soon 
found  that  his  knowledge  both  of  German  and 
Chemistry  was  inadequate  to  enable  him  to 
derive  any  benefit  from  these  lectures,  and 
he  set  off  alone  to  travel  in  the  East  as  long 
as  the  money  at  his  disposal  would  allow. 


EUGENICS  41 

As  an  indication  of  the  hardships  and  dis- 
comforts of  travelling  in  the  year  1840,  even 
in  civilised  countries,  it  may  be  mentioned 
that  on  the  homeward  journey  it  took  seven 
days  and  eight  nights  to  reach  Boulogne  by 
diligence  from  Milan.  From  this  some  idea 
may  be  gained  of  the  adventurous  spirit  and 
practical  ability  of  a  boy  of  eighteen  who  set 
out  alone  and  accomplished  a  successful 
journey,  extending  as  far  from  home  and  in 
such  wild  places  as  Greece  and  Asia  Minor. 

In  the  autumn,  after  his  return,  Galton 
went  up  to  Trinity  College,  Cambridge,  where 
his  talents  threw  him  into  the  society  of  all 
the  best  undergraduates  of  the  day.  Many 
of  these  afterwards  attained  distinction  of 
various  kinds  in  varying  degree,  as,  for 
instance,  Sir  Henry  Maine,  Lord  Justice  Kay, 
and  Tom  Taylor.  He  showed  here  his  talent 
for  friendship  and  discriminating  apprecia- 
tion of  the  good  qualities  of  his  fellows, 
characteristics  which  more  than  any  other 
prevent  a  clever  man  from  turning  into  a 
crank  and  keep  sane  his  outlook  on  the  world. 

But  though  taking  such  full  advantage  of 
the  social  opportimities  which  are  among  the 
principal  benefits  of  a  career  at  Oxford  or 
Cambridge,  Galton  applied  himself  with  very 
great  energy  to  the  acquisition  of  mathe- 
matical knowledge,  with  the  unfortunate 
result  that  in  his  third  year  his  health  broke 
down,  and  he  was  obliged  to  take  a  long  rest 


42  EUGENICS 

and  to  abandon  the  idea  of  obtaining  honours 
in  mathematics.  So  after  taking  a  poll^ 
degree  he  attended  lectures  on  medicine  in 
Cambridge,  and  then  went  for  a  time  to 
St  George's  Hospital  in  London.  On  the 
death  of  his  father  in  1844,  Galton,  not  yet 
having  fully  recovered  his  health,  abandoned 
his  medical  career  and  set  out  on  further 
travels.  The  first  place  visited  was  Egypt, 
where  with  two  companions  he  penetrated 
up  the  Nile  as  far  as  Khartoum,  travelling  by 
river  to  Korosko,  then  by  camel  across  the 
desert  to  Abuhamed,  and  thence  onward  by 
boat.  Khartoum  was  at  that  time  much 
beyond  the  range  of  ordinary  tourists. 

From  Egypt  Galton  went  to  Syria,  and 
after  returning  settled  in  Leamington  with 
his  family,  where  he  hunted  and  shot  and 
fraternised  with  the  hard  riding  and  hard 
living  set  who  formed  the  Leamington  Hunt 
Club.  From  1846-50  he  spent  much  time  in 
London,  but  he  saw  a  good  deal  of  other  parts 
of  the  British  Isles.  For  recreation  he  hunted 
with  the  Queen's  Stag  Hounds,  took  walks 
and  riding  tours,  tried  ballooning;  while  at 
the  same  time  he  did  much  serious  reading, 
and  invented  a  device  called  the  telotype  for 
printing  telegraphic  messages. 

In  1850  he  set  out  for  a  voyage  of  serious 
exploration  in  South-west  Africa,  which  was 

•  A  degree  taken  without  honours,  corresponding  to 
the  Oxford  pass  degree. 


EUGENICS  43 

carried  to  a  successful  conclusion  in  the  face 
of  great  hardship  and  difficulty.  His  success 
was  recognised  by  the  Royal  Geographical 
Society,  who,  in  1854,  awarded  him  one  of 
their  two  annual  gold  medals.  His  experi- 
ence of  travel  was  turned  to  good  accoimt  at 
the  time  of  the  Crimean  War,  in  a  course  of 
lectures  on  camp  life  given  gratuitously  at 
Aldershot,  to  the  officers  stationed  there.  Our 
soldiers  were  at  that  time  quite  ignorant  of 
the  subject,  but  Galton's  offer  to  the  War 
Office  thus  to  communicate  his  own  experi- 
ence received  no  answer  from  them  till  it 
was  brought  directly  to  the  attention  of  the 
Prime  Minister. 

From  that  time  onward  Galton  lived 
principally  in  London,  and  began  there  the 
pioneering  work  on  various  scientific  problems 
which  he  kept  up  till  the  end  of  his  long  fife. 
Meteorology  was  one  of  the  first  subjects 
which  claimed  his  attention,  and  he  enriched 
it  by  discovering  and  naming  the  anticyclone, 
an  atmospheric  system,  the  persistence  of 
which  was  so  heartily  cursed  in  the  sununer 
in  1911,  and  so  earnestly  prayed  for  in  1912. 

Geography  he  was  always  keenly  interested 
in,  and  as  a  member  of  the  Council  of  the 
Royal  Geographical  Society  he  came  in  touch 
with  all  the  famous  explorers  of  the  day, 
and  in  his  book  tells  much  that  is  of  great 
interest  about  their  characters  and  quarrels. 

But  it  is  by  his  work  on  heredity  and  on 


44  EUGENICS 

the  subjects  into  which  it  led  him,  that 
Galton's  scientific  fame  was  principally  gained. 
Stimulated  by  the  publication  of  the  Origin 
of  Species  in  the  year  1859,  and  'impressed 
by  many  obvious  cases  of  heredity  among 
the  Cambridge  men '  of  his  own  time,  he  gave 
much  serious  thought  and  hard  work  to  the 
subject,  and  published  the  first  results  in 
Macmillan's  Magazine  for  1865.  The  articles 
in  question  were  called  *  Hereditary  Talent 
and  Genius,*  and  besides  treating  of  the  sub- 
jects indicated  by  the  title  they  contained 
his  first  utterances  on  Eugenics.  We  cannot 
follow  in  detail  the  subsequent  stages  of 
Galton's  work  on  heredity,  though  some 
aspects  of  them  will  be  dealt  with  in  a  later 
chapter.  Here  it  may  be  noted  that  they 
gave  rise  to  his  inquiry  into  'Human  Faculty' 
and  to  the  organisation  of  much  anthropo- 
metric investigation.  The  measurement  of 
the  proportions  of  human  beings,  which  is 
comprised  in  anthropometry,  Jed  him  to  the 
consideration  of  Bertillon's  system  for  the 
identification  of  criminals,  and  then  in  turn 
to  other  possible  methods  of  Personal  Identi- 
fication. As  a  result,  he  devised  the  finger- 
print system  which  is  now  in  use  at  Scotland 
Yard  almost  in  its  original  form,  and  with 
some  modifications  has  spread  from  England 
to  many  other  countries. 

While  devoting  so  much  energy  to  scientific 
work  in  so  many  fields,  Galton  was  always  the 


EUGENICS  45 

very  opposite  of  a  recluse.  He  had  ample 
opportunities  and  the  power  for  making 
friends  of  all  the  men  of  distinction  in  his 
day,  and  he  used  them  to  the  full.  He 
attached  great  importance  to  the  opinions  of 
his  friends,  and  consulted  them  freely  about 
his  scientific  undertakings.  He  must  be 
regarded  as  a  man  with  a  knowledge  of  men 
and  things  far  beyond  the  ordinary,  eminently 
receptive  and  inventive,  and  always  in  touch 
with  life  at  a  thousand  points.  His  intellect 
was  qiiite  unclouded  up  till  his  death  in  1911. 
He  was  no  mere  benevolent  constructor  of 
Utopias,  but  a  man  whose  exceptional 
originality  of  mind  was  always  guided  by  an 
equally  remarkable  experience  of  hmnan 
nature  and  life. 

As  has  been  previously  stated,  Galton  gave 
utterance  to  his  earliest  views  on  Eugenics 
in  1865,  in  two  articles  published  in  Mac- 
millaria  Magazine.  Writing  in  1908,  he 
says  :  *  They  expressed  then,  as  clearly  as 
I  can  do  now,  the  leading  principles  of 
.Eugenics.'  He  again  referred  to  the  question 
in  his  book  on  Human  F acuity y  in  1884,  and 
there  the  word  Eugenics  was  first  intro- 
duced in  describing  as  follows  some  of  the 
objects  of  the  work. 

'Its  intention  is  to  touch  on  various  topics 
more  or  less  connected  with  that  of  cultiva- 
tion of  race,  or  as  we  might  call  it,  with 
"Eugenic"  questions.* 


46  EUGENICS 

The  nature  of  such  qualities  as  energy  and 
delicacy  of  sense-perception  are  investi- 
gated, and  in  certain  cases  an  estimate  of 
their  value  to  the  race  is  given. 

Thus  of  energy  Galton  writes,  *In  any 
scheme  of  Eugenics,  energy  is  the  most 
important  quality  to  favour;  it  is,  as  we  have 
seen  the  basis  of  living  action,  and  is  eminently 
transmissible  by  descent.* 

Galton  again  returned  to  the  subject  of 
Eugenics  in  the  year  1901,  when  he  delivered 
the  'Huxley  Lecture'  before  the  Anthropo- 
logical Institute,  on  the  'Possible  Improve- 
ment of  the  Human  Breed  under  existing 
conditions  of  Law  and  Sentiment.'  This 
lecture,  which  was  followed  by  others  read 
before  the  Sociological  Society  a  year  or  two 
later,  aroused  considerable  public  interest  on 
the  subject,  which  has  since  then  continued 
to  grow  and  spread. 

In  order  to  facilitate  research  into  the 
many  problems  involved,  Galton  founded, 
in  the  year  1904,  a  Research  Fellowship  at 
London  University.  Early  in  1905  the^ 
present  writer  was  appointed  to  this  post, 
and  worked,  partly  under  Galton's  immediate 
direction,  in  a  room  rented  by  University 
College  in  Gower  Street.  Shortly  afterwards 
a  research  scholarship  was  added,  and  filled 
by  Miss  E.  M.  Elderton.  After  the  resigna- 
tion, in  1907,  of  the  first  Research  Fellow, 
the  institution,  originally  called  '  The  Eugenics 


EUGENICS  47 

Record  Office,*  was  placed  under  the  superin- 
tendence of  Professor  Karl  Pearson,  who  had 
from  the  outset  kindly  and  willingly  responded 
to  all  requests  for  advice  and  help.  Its 
name  was  changed  from  'Record  Office'  to 
'Laboratory.'  Dr  David  Heron  was  then 
appointed  Research  Fellow,  and  from  time 
to  time  other  members  of  the  staff  have  been 
added. 

On  Galton's  death  his  residuary  estate 
was  bequeathed  to  form  a  permanent  endow- 
ment of  the  laboratory.  It  was  his  wish  that 
no  part  of  the  money  should  be  spent  on 
building,  and  that  a  professorship  should  be 
established  which  Professor  Karl  Pearson 
should  be  invited  to  hold.  The  latter  accepted 
the  position,  so  the  result  has  been  to  place 
the  laboratory  on  a  much  firmer  footing, 
without  involving  any  change  in  its  personnel. 
Its  activity  has  been  indicated  by  the  pro- 
duction of  a  long  series  of  memoirs,  many  of 
them  involving  first  studies  of  problems  of 
exceptional  difficulty.  Some  will  be  referred 
to  in  detail  in  subsequent  chapters.  Galton's 
foundation  is  essentially  and  almost  entirely 
an  institution  for  research;  it  does  not 
directly  aim  at  the  spread  of  Eugenic  ideals 
or  even  at  generally  diffusing  such  small 
knowledge  of  the  subject  as  is  at  present 
available. 

For  the  latter  objects  the  Eugenics  Educa- 
tion Society  was  founded  in  the  year  1908, 


48  EUGENICS 

and  under  the  honorary  secretaryship  of 
Mrs  Gotto  has  pursued  since  then  an  active 
csweer.  The  direction  of  its  poHcy  is  in  the 
hands  of  a  council  of  forty  members.  Galton 
himself  joined  the  Society  as  honorary 
president,  while  the  acting  president  is  now 
his  cousin,  Major  Leonard  Darwin. 

The  aim  of  the  Society  is  principally  to 
encourage  people  to  think  about  Eugenics, 
and  as  a  means  to  that  end  it  holds  meetings, 
at  which  different  phases  of  the  subject  are 
discussed  from  many  points  of  view.  It 
publishes  a  journal  entitled  the  Eugenics 
Review,  the  contents  of  which  include  many 
of  the  papers  read  before  the  Society,  reviews 
and  notes  on  much  relevant  literature,  both 
books  and  periodicals,  and  reports  of  such 
Parliamentary  and  other  proceedings  as  are 
of  interest  to  Eugenists.  It  is,  in  fact,  a  very 
well-conceived  and  useful  periodical. 

The  Society  endeavours  to  examine  by 
means  of  more  or  less  expert  committees  the 
tendency  of  proposed  legislation,  in  order  to 
use  its  growing  influence  to  support  what  is 
Eugenic  and  to  oppose  what  is  dysgenic. 
Its  further  activities  include  the  organisation 
of  lectures  of  various  kinds  to  suit  different 
audiences,  and  where  occasion  arises  the 
encouragement  of  co-operative  research. 

It  has  branches  in  Belfast,  Birmingham, 
Glasgow,  Haslemere,  Liverpool,  Manchester, 
five  in  New  Zealand,  and  one  in  Australia. 


EUGENICS  49 

In  1911,  at  the  instigation  of  this  Society, 
the  Congress  of  National  Health  at  Dublin 
included  a  Eugenics  Section,  and  during  the 
summer  of  1912  the  first  International 
Eugenics  Congress  was  held  in  the  buildingg 
of  the  University  of  London.  The  Congress 
attracted  more  than  700  members,  and  as 
its  proceedings  were  fully  reported  and 
sympathetically  commented  on  by  all  the 
more  reputable  London  papers,  it  must  have 
had  a  wide  influence  in  bringing  the  notion 
of  Eugenics  home  to  the  public.  Among  the 
members  of  the  Congress  were  many  dis- 
tinguished scientists  and  public  men  from  the 
United  States,  Germany,  France,  Belgiiun, 
Denmark,  Norway,  Italy,  and  Spain,  as  well 
as  from  our  own  and  many  other  coimtries, 
and  its  proceedings  contained  a  great  deal  of 
interest  and  importance  which  will  as  occasion 
arises  be  more  fully  dealt  with  in  this  volume. 

Another  agency  which  has  incidentally 
been  instrmnental  in  spreading  ideas  on 
Eugenics  in  this  coimtry  is  the  National 
Council  for  Public  Morals,  which  takes  for 
its  motto  the  following  quotation :  *The 
foundations  of  National  Glory  are  set  in  the 
homes  of  the  people.  They  will  only  remain 
unshaken  while  the  family  life  of  our  race 
is  strong,  simple,  and  pure.*  Though  this 
sentence  implies  that  their  object  is  'National 
Glory,'  they  are  really  striving  for  something 
that  is  broader  and  of  ijurer  gold,  even  though 


60  EUGENICS 

it  may  glitter  less.  One  of  their  methods  is 
the  publication  of  a  series  of  New  Tracts  for 
the  Times,  of  which  at  least  two  advocate 
Eugenics  as  a  means  of  accelerating  a  process 
styled  by  the  National  Council,  with  perhaps 
unintentional  pessimism — '  Race  Regenera- 
tion.' 

In  other  countries  the  idea  of  Eugenics  is 
also  spreading  widely  and  rapidly.  This  is 
particularly  the  case  in  the  United  States.^ 
Researches  bearing  directly  on  the  subject 
have  been  carried  out  in  that  country  from 
1874  and  1875  onwards.  Among  the  first 
of  these  was  the  investigation  by  Robert 
Dugdale  of  the  '  Jukes '  family,  from  which  an 
inordinate  number  of  criminals  and  other 
undesirables  have  sprung.  Much  evidence  of 
a  similar  kind  has  been  published  in  the 
proceedings  of  the  National  Conference  of 
Charities  and  Correction  and  of  the  American 
Prison  Association. 

The  inheritance  of  Deaf  Mutism  has  also 
been  systematically  investigated  since  the 
publication,  in  1883,  of  Dr  Alexander  Graham 
Bell's  Memoir  upon  the  Foundation  of  a  Deaf 
Variety  of  the  Human  Race. 

In  addition  to  this  early  Research  Work 
a  propagandist  proposal  was  made  by  Loring 
Moody  of  Boston  in  1881.    He  suggested  the 

^  The  information  concerning  the  spread  of  Eugenics 
in  America  is  taken  principally  from  an  article  in  the 
Quarterly  Journal  of  Economics  (November,  191 1),  by 
Mr  J,  A.  Field. 


EUGENICS  51 

establishment  of  an  Institute  of  Heredity, 
which,  by  means  of  providing  lectures  and 
a  library,  should  diffuse  'knowledge  on  the 
subject  of  improving  our  race  by  the  laws 
of  physiology.'  Death  prevented  Moody 
from  realising  his  proposals,  and  it  was  many 
years  before  any  idea  of  the  kind  was  sug- 
gested again. 

In  1903,  probably  owing  to  the  enthusiasm 
for  the  scientific  methods  aroused  by  the 
re-discovery  a  year  or  two  previously  of 
Mendel's  results,  the  American  Breeders' 
Association  was  formed  to  acquire  a  know- 
ledge of  heredity  for  practical  application 
in  the  breeding  of  plants  and  animals.  In 
1906,  two  years  after  Eugenics  had  found 
in  England  an  official  home  at  the  London 
University,  this  Society  appointed  a  com- 
mittee on  Eugenics,  which,  in  1910,  was 
converted  into  an  autonomous  section.  The 
chairman  is  Dr  David  Starr  Jordan,  author 
of  The  Blood  of  the  Nation  and  The  Human 
Harvest^  both  works  dealing  with  Eugenics; 
and  the  secretary  is  Dr  C.  B.  Davenport, 
director  of  the  Department  of  Experimental 
Evolution  of  the  Carnegie  Institution  at 
Cold  Spring  Harbour,  Long  Island. 

The  Eugenics  section  carries  on  its  work 
of  investigation  by  means  of  committees  of 
experts,  which  it  appoints  to  consider  special 
problems.  It  has  also  established  a  Eugenics 
Record  Office  at  Cold  Spring  Harbour,  with 


52  EUGENICS 

a  permanent  staff  under  the  special  superin- 
tendence of  Mr  H.  H.  Laughlin,  the  general 
direction  of  which  is  in  the  hands  of  Dr 
Davenport.  The  principal  work  of  the  office 
is  the  collection  of  pedigrees  intended  to 
elucidate  the  laws  governing  the  inheritance  of 
special  mental  and  physical  qualities  in  man. 

That  the  idea  of  Eugenics  has  spread  almost 
too  rapidly  among  certain  sections  of  the 
American  public  is  shown  by  the  passing 
of  many  laws  of  a  rather  hasty  and  ill- 
considered  kind — a  process  for  which  the 
American  Constitution  appears  particularly 
well  adapted. 

In  Germany  the  aims  of  Eugenics  are 
pursued  under  the  title  of  Race  Hygiene, 
which  means  the  promotion  of  agencies  for 
the  betterment  of  future  generations,  different 
from,  but  analogous  with,  hygienic  measures 
for  the  betterment  of  the  existing  generation. 
The  German  Society  for  Race  Hygiene  is 
grouped  with  societies  having  similar  objects 
in  other  countries  to  form  an  International 
Association,  which  thus  defines  its  aims  Fi- 
ends AND  MEANS 

(i.)  The  International  Association  for  Race 
Hygiene  aims  at  promoting  the  theory  and 
practice  of  Race  Hygiene  among  white  races. 

*  Translated  from  4  Bericht  der  Internationalen  Gesell- 
tchaft  fUr  Rassen-Hygiene.     1909. 


EUGENICS  58 

(ii.)  The  Association  is  unconnected  with 
any  poUtical  or  rehgious  movement. 

(in.)  The  Association  seeks  to  promote 
its  purpose — 

(a)  By  advancing  scientific,  racial,  and 
social  biology,  including  racial  and 
social  hygiene,  and  in  particular  by  the 
collection  and  registration  of  those  facts 
concerning  the  normal  and  patho- 
logical nature  of  body  and  mind» 
which  are  important  in  the  study  of 
variation  and  heredity  in  man. 

{b)  Through  the  spread  of  the  knowledge 
that  is  acquired,  as  well  as  the  prac- 
tical guidance  to  be  derived  from  it, 
among  the  members  and  among  the 
people  at  large. 

(c)  By  drawing  closer  together  the  members 
of  the  Society  who  are  willing  to 
regulate  their  own  lives  in  accordance 
with  the  motives  of  the  Society — 
firstly,  by  earnest  efforts  to  keep  them- 
selves in  good  condition  in  body  and 
mind ;  secondly,  by  pledging  them- 
selves to  ascertain  before  marriage, 
according  to  the  directions  of  the 
Society,  whether  they  are  fit  for  it, 
and  if  unfit,  either  to  remain  un- 
married or  to  refrain  from  parent- 
hood ;  thirdly,  by  promoting  the 
hidividual  and  racial  well-being  of  the 
rii>ing  generation. 


51  EUGENICS 

The  International  Association  for  Race 
Hygiene  consists  of  the  German  Society, 
which  has  branches  in  Munich  and  Berlin, 
and  the  Swedish  Society  for  Race  Hygiene; 
it  has  also  individual  members  in  many  other 
lands. 

In  France,  a  committee  was  formed  in 
connection  with  the  International  Congress, 
of  which  many  of  the  members  were  men 
of  world-wide  reputation,  as  anthropologists, 
neurologists,  alienists,  statisticians,  and 
students  of  heredity  and  medicine,  and 
since  then  a  permanent  Society  has  been 
founded.  Strong  committees  were  also  formed 
in  Italy  and  Belgium.  In  Denmark  a  section 
of  the  Anthropological  Committee  has  been 
appointed  to  consider  eugenic  questions, 
while  as  a  result  of  the  Congress,  the  study 
of  Eugenics  in  Belgium  has  been  placed  on 
a  firm  footing  by  the  establishment  of  a 
Eugenics  Section  at  the  Institut  Solvay.  It 
would  be  out  of  place  here  to  give  a  complete 
account  of  this  Institution,  which  has  no 
parallel  in  any  other  European  country;  but 
in  order  that  due  significance  may  be  at- 
tached to  its  latest  step,  it  is  necessary 
to  give  some  sort  of  indication  of  its  nature. 

It  was  founded  by  M.  Solvay  in  1902,  and 
established  in  a  large  and  handsome  build- 
ing in  the  Pare  Leopold  at  Brussels.  Its 
object  is  to  facilitate  the  study  of  sociology, 
which  comprises  all  questions  concerning  the 


EUGENICS  65 

structure,  working,  and  evolution  of  society. 
Sociology  includes  on  the  one  side  industrial 
and  economic  problems,  and  on  the  other  side 
the  social  applications  of  biology;  the  science 
of  Eugenics  may  thus  be  rightly  regarded 
as  a  branch  of  it.  The  instutute  in  question 
is  equipped  vath  a  scientific  and  adminis- 
trative staff,  a  magnificent  library,  and  a 
bibliography  of  everything  that  appears  on 
the  subject  of  sociology.  Its  resources  are 
at  the  disposal  of  persons  engaged  in  making 
sociological  researches,  and  in  order  to 
encourage  work  of  this  description  prizes 
are  offered  yearly  for  investigations  on  par- 
ticular problems. 

In  Holland  a  committee  has  been  formed 
to  urge  the  need  of  medical  research  before 
marriage,  and  '  To  convince  mankind  that  one 
is  morally  bound  to  ask  for  medical  advice 
before  marriage,  which  ought  to  be  done, 
both  in  the  interest  of  the  inquirers  and  of  the 
offspring.'  The  committee  declares  itself 
against  interdiction  of  marriage. 

In  addition  to  the  societies  and  institu- 
tions organised  either  wholly  or  partly  for 
the  advance  of  Eugenics,  there  are  many 
movements  on  foot  with  objects  which  might 
be  considered  as  Eugenic  in  their  nature  if 
they  were  pursued  as  parts  of  a  larger  scheme. 
Of  these  perhaps  the  two  which  have  most 
importance  are  those  intended  to  protect  the 
young  against  the  dangers  which  arise  from 


B6  EUGENICS 

their  own  sexual  life,  and  to  shelter  mothers 
during  and  after  pregnancy. 

SUMMARY  OF  CHAPTER 

The  widespread  acceptance  of  Eugenics,  if 
not  as  a  practical  policy  for  immediate 
application,  at  any  rate  as  a  proposition 
worthy  of  serious  discussion  is  due  almost 
entirely  to  the  influence  of  Sir  Francis  Galton. 
Therefore,  in  order  to  show  that  his  proposals 
were  the  fruit  of  an  exceptionally  ripe  and 
varied  experience,  it  seemed  desirable  to 
preface  an  account  of  the  agencies  now  at 
work  for  the  spread  of  the  idea,  by  a  short 
summary  of  his  ancestry  and  life  with  an 
outline  sketch  of  his  work  and  character. 

The  development  of  the  Galton  Laboratory 
for  Eugenics  at  the  London  University  is 
next  described  as  the  only  establishment  in 
this  country  devoted  to  the  carrying  out  of 
statistical  researches  on  the  subject.  After 
some  mention  has  been  made  of  the  Eugenics 
Education  Society,  The  American  Breeders' 
Association  is  dealt  with  in  relation  to  its 
work  on  Eugenics.  The  objects  of  the  Inter- 
national Association  for  Race  Hygiene  next 
receive  attention,  and  finally  the  establish- 
ment of  a  Eugenics  department  at  the  Solvay 
Institute  for  sociology  at  Brussels  is  referred  to. 


EUGENICS  67 

CHAPTER  IV 

EVOLUTION  AND  EUGENICS 

Heredity  finds  its  commonest  outward 
expression  in  the  fact  that  characters  or 
qualities  observed  in  the  parents  frequently 
occur  also  in  the  children.  In  everyday 
language  the  child  is  said  to  take  after  his 
mother  or  his  father.  He  sometimes  also 
takes  after  his  grandmothers  or  grandfathers, 
or  even  after  relations  of  more  remote  degree 
in  his  direct  ancestry.  In  some  respects  he 
may  favour  (to  use  another  colloquialism) 
some  uncle  or  aunt  or  other  collateral,  and 
the  resemblance  may  be  either  general  oi 
particular.  It  cannot  be  too  emphatically 
asserted  that  what  is  observed  is  not  the 
inheritance  of  particular  characters,^  but  the 
similarity  in  respect  to  them  of  two  individuals 
belonging  to  the  same  family.  Heredity  is 
the  h5T)othesis  put  forward  to  explain  this 
similarity,  or,  to  speak  more  precisely,  to 
label  it  as  a  particular  instance  of  general 
law. 

The  scientific  study  of  heredity  appears  to 
turn  about  two  problems,  one  descriptive 
and  the  other  physiological.     We  want  an 

*  The  word  character  is  here  used  in  a  technical  sense, 
denoting  qualities  or  characteristics,  mental  and  physical. 


58  EUGENICS 

accurate  and  precise  account  of  the  facts — 
what  characters  are  inherited,  and  to  what 
degree  and  in  what  way  they  are  inherited; 
and  we  want  to  find  out  the  nature  of  the 
underlying  mechanism.  It  is  obvious  that 
these  two  problems  are  in  reality  so  closely 
connected  as  to  be  practically  one.  For  a 
knowledge  of  the  facts  is  the  only  guide  to 
the  mechanism,  while  an  understanding  of 
the  mechanism  more  than  anything  else 
would  help  one  clearly  to  realise  the  facts. 
Of  the  many  theories  which  have  been  put 
forward  as  to  the  essential  mechanism  of 
heredity,  one  only  has  stood  the  test  of  time, 
and  this  is  held  by  practically  all  biologists 
at  the  present  time.  This  is  the  theory  of 
the '  continuity  of  the  germplasm '  propounded 
by  August  Weismann  about  thirty  years 
ago.  When  it  is  said  that  Weismann's 
hypothesis  is  almost  universally  accepted  at 
the  present  day,  its  broad  outline  is  referred 
to,  and  not  the  elaborate  detail  with  which 
the  outline  was  originally  filled  in.  The 
detail  need  not  here  be  described,  but  a 
knowledge  of  the  essentials  is  indispensable 
to  a  thorough  study  of  Eugenics. 

The  'germplasm'  is  the  material  out  of 
which  the  germs  are  made,  the  germs  them- 
selves being  the  elements  which  under  suit- 
able conditions  grow  and  develop  into  the 
adult  animal  or  plant.  It  is  the  nature  of 
the  germplasm  which  determines  what  kind 


EUGENICS  69 

of  animal  or  plant  shall  spring  from  the 
germs,  not  only  in  respect  to  those  broader 
differences  which  characterise  the  species 
and  variety  to  which  it  belongs,  but  also  to 
a  large  extent  in  respect  to  its  individual 
characters. 

Now  as  each  creature  proceeds  to  develop 
by  the  growth  and  differentiation  of  that 
small  mass  of  germplasm  which  apart  from 
some  provision  of  food  and  covering  was  its 
all  at  the  first  beginning  of  individual  exist- 
ence, a  portion  of  that  same  mass  is  set  aside 
unchanged  in  quality  though  increasing  in 
quantity.  The  particular  function  assigned 
to  this  reserve  of  material,  which  forms  no 
true  part  of  the  body  in  which  it  lives  and 
grows,  is  to  provide  the  germs  from  which 
the  succeeding  generation  shall  spring.  In 
the  members  of  that  next  generation  a  similar 
process  occurs,  and  thus  it  can  truly  be  said 
that  the  germplasm  is  continuous  from  one 
generation  to  another.  If  it  is  the  nature  of 
the  germplasm  which  determines  the  growth 
and  development  of  the  individual,  and  if 
the  father,  son,  and  grandson  on  the  one 
hand,  and  the  father's  father  and  father's 
grandfather  on  the  other,  all  spring  from 
different  portions  of  the  same  germplasm, 
then  the  similarity  between  them  can  be 
more  readily  understood  than  the  differences. 

The  fact  that  the  reproduction  of  the  more 
conspicuous  of  the  animals,  and  to  a  lesser 


60  EUGENICS 

degree  of  the  plants,  is  largely  sexual — ^that 
is  to  say,  that  the  germplasm  in  each  case  is 
provided,  one-half  by  the  father  and  one- 
half  by  the  mother,  complicates,  but  does 
not  alter  the  essential  nature  of  the  theory. 
In  particular,  it  leads  to  the  following  infer- 
ence— that  each  portion  of  the  body  must 
be  represented  in  duplicate  in  the  germ- 
plasm,  from  which  it  follows,  further,  that 
characters  represented  potentially  in  the 
germplasm  need  not  be  developed  in  the 
actual  body. 

It  will  be  as  well  to  introduce  here  the  word 
*soma,'  borrowed  from  the  Greek  to  denote 
the  body  contrasted  with  the  germplasm. 
From  it  is  derived  the  expression  'somatic 
characters,*  denoting  the  actual  characters  of 
the  body,  when  it  is  necessary  to  distinguish 
clearly  between  them  and  the  characters 
existing  potentially  in  the  germplasm.  The 
latter  may  be  called  the  gametic  characters, 
a  term  the  meaning  of  which  will  be  explained 
later.  We  have  at  present  no  knowledge  of 
their  real  nature.  We  cannot  tell  whether 
it  is  a  difference  of  chemical  constitution,  of 
the  architecture  and  arrangement  of  the  com- 
ponent parts,  or  of  their  motions  relative  to 
one  another  which,  decides  that  one  micro- 
scopic fragment  of  germplasm  shall  unfold 
into  a  small  mouse  with  white  hair,  pink  eyes, 
and  the  habit  of  running  round  after  its  tail, 
and  another  into  a  tall  senior  wrangler. 


EUGENICS  61 

Such  knowledge  is  necessary  to  the  com- 
plete understanding  of  heredity;  it  is  not 
essential  to  the  acceptance  of  the  theory  of 
the  continuity  of  the  germplasm.  The 
importance  of  this  theory  to  the  biologist 
consists  not  only  in  the  simplicity  of  the 
explanation  which  it  affords  of  some  of  the 
phenomena  of  heredity,  but  also  in  its  bearing 
on  the  two  principal  hypotheses  which  have 
been  put  forward  to  accoimt  for  the  now 
generally  admitted  fact  of  organic  evolution. 
At  the  present  day  hardly  any  one  doubts  that 
all  the  complex  forms  of  life  which  we  know, 
in  their  infinite  variety,  have  arisen  gradually 
from  very  simple  beginnings,  or  that  this  pro- 
gress which  we  call  evolution  is  due  in  part  at 
any  rate  to  the  operation  of  natural  laws,  with- 
out the  interference  of  any  miracle;  what  these 
natural  laws  are,  and  how  they  have  operated, 
the  framers  of  the  two  hypotheses  referred 
to  above  have  endeavoured  to  set  forth. 
A  study  of  evolution  in  the  past  would 
obviously  assist  those  who  desire  in  some 
small  way  to  regulate  it  in  the  future. 
It  is  thus  desirable  to  examine  briefly  the 
chief  explanations  which  have  been  offered. 
The  first  of  these,  in  point  of  time,  was  pro- 
pounded by  Lamarck. 

Jean  Baptiste  de  Lamarck*  was  bom  in 

^  The  account  of  Lamarck  and  his  views  has  been  largely 
taken  from  Morgan's  Evolution  and  Adaptation  and  from 
Weismann's  Evolution  Theory. 


«52  EUGENICS 

Picardy  in  the  year  1744.  He  was  first  a 
soldier,  secondly  a  botanist,  and  thirdly  a 
zoologist.  As  a  botanist  he  published  a  flora 
of  France,  as  a  zoologist  he  defined  and  named 
the  great  division  of  the  animal  kingdom 
called  Vertebrates  (animals  with  backbones). 

His  theory  of  Evolution  was  given  full 
utterance  to  in  the  Philosophie  Zoologiqtie, 
which  he  brought  out  in  the  year  1809.  It 
consists  essentially  of  four  propositions. 

First,  that  the  simplest  organisms  were 
produced  in  the  past,  and  are  constantly 
being  produced  in  suitable  localities  and 
under  suitable  conditions  by  the  process  of 
spontaneous  generation.  At  the  present  day 
an  overwhelming  majority  of  biologists  con- 
sider it  proved  that  imorganised  matter  does 
not  spontaneously  change  into  living  beings. 
They  accept  the  dictum  '  omne  vivum  e  vivo' — 
that  every  living  thing  is  produced  by  another 
living  thing,  though  they  concede  the  possi- 
bility postulated  by  a  thorough-going  accept- 
ance of  the  theory  of  Evolution  that  in 
primeval  times  when  the  physical  conditions 
orf  the  earth  were  very  different  from  what 
they  are  now,  living  matter  may  have  been 
evolved  gradually  from  inorganic  beginnings. 

His  second  proposition  is  that  the  direct 
action  of  a  changing  environment  has  pro- 
duced lower  animals  and  plants  of  diverse 
forms,  from  the  simple  organisms  arising 
in  the  manner  described  above.     This  is  a 


EUGENICS  63 

purely  formal  explanation,  it  does  not  help 
one  in  any  way  to  understand  the  facts. 

Thirdly,  that  among  the  higher  animals 
the  diverse  forms  and  structures  have  been 
caused  indirectly  by  changes  in  their  sur- 
roundings according  to  the  following  *  laws': — 

(i.)  'In  every  animal  that  has  not  passed 
beyond  the  term  of  its  development,  the 
frequent  and  sustained  use  of  an  organ 
strengthens  it,  develops  it,  increases  its  size, 
and  gives  it  strength  proportionate  to  the 
length  of  time  of  its  employment.  On  the 
other  hand,  continued  lack  of  use  of  the  same 
organ  sensibly  weakens  it;  it  deteriorates, 
and  its  faculties  diminish  progressively  imtil 
at  last  it  disappears. 

(n.)  'Nature  preserves  everything  that  she 
has  caused  the  individual  to  acquire  or  to 
lose  by  the  influence  of  the  circumstances  to 
which  the  race  has  for  a  long  time  been 
exposed,  and  consequently  by  the  influence 
of  the  predominant  use  of  certain  organs 
(or  in  consequence  of  continued  disuse). 
She  does  this  by  the  generation  of  new  indi- 
viduals which  are  produced  with  the  newly 
acquired  organs.  This  occurs  provided  that 
the  acquired  changes  were  common  to  the 
two  sexes  and  to  the  individuals  that  pro- 
duced the  new  forms.' 

The  essential  propositions  of  this  third 
division  of  the  theory  may  then  be  briefly 
stated    in    the  following   manner: — Changes 


64  EUGENICS 

in  the  animal's  surroundings  are  responded 
to  by  changes  in  itc  habits.  Any  par- 
ticular habit  involves  the  regular  use  of 
some  organs  and  the  disuse  of  others.  Those 
organs  which  are  used  will  be  developed 
and  strengthened,  those  not  used  diminished 
and  weakened,  and  the  changes  so  pro- 
duced will  be  transmitted  to  the  offspring, 
and  thus  progressive  development  of  par- 
ticular organs  will  go  on  from  generation 
to  generation. 

As  examples  of  the  action  of  these  supposed 
laws,  Lamarck  instances  the  long  legs,  long 
necks,  and  long  bUls  of  wading  birds,  such  as 
herons  and  storks,  acquired  gradually  by  the 
practice  of  wading  first  in  shallow  and  then 
in  deeper  and  deeper  waters  in  their  search  for 
fish.  A  terrestrial  parallel  is  provided  by  the 
giraffe,  who  feeds  on  the  foliage  of  trees  and, 
by  continually  stretching  upwards  to  seize 
and  devour  it,  has  succeeded  in  lengthening 
his  forelegs  and  almost  more  conspicuously 
his  neck,  so  that  now  he  can  browse  on  lofty 
branches  without  discomfort.  As  examples 
of  the  way  in  which  organs  may  degenerate 
through  want  of  exercise  continued  through 
many  generations,  we  have  the  loss  of  legs 
in  the  snake,  brought  about  by  its  habit  of 
wriggling  through  the  grass,  and  the  loss  of 
teeth  in  the  whale,  incurred  after  it  gave  up 
a  fish  diet  and  took  to  bolting  myriads  of 
minute  animals  without  masticating  them. 


EUGENICS  65 

The  most  notable  exponent  of  Lamarck's 
theory  in  a  modified  form  was  Herbert 
Spencer,  and  some  of  the  questions  which  it  in- 
volves were  debated  with  great  vigour  by  him 
and  his  principal  opponent,  August  Weismann. 
The  chief  objection  to  the  theory  is  that  if 
the  effects  of  the  environment  on  the  indi- 
vidual, such  as  the  special  development  of 
organs  from  sustained  use,  are  in  fact  trans- 
mitted to  the  offspring  in  the  ordinary  course, 
it  ought  to  be  easy  to  obtain  direct  evidence 
of  it,  yet  when  one  comes  to  inquire  one  finds 
that  evidence  is  wanting.  The  theory  of  the 
continuity  of  the  germplasm  is  opposed  to  the 
Lamarckian  view,  because  it  is  difficult  to 
conceive  how  by  stretching  his  neck  the 
ancestral  giraffe  could  have  so  affected  the 
germplasm  as  to  produce  a  longer  neck  in 
his  offspring,  if  one  remembers  that  it  was 
separated  out  and  put  in  reserve  long  before 
he  took  to  vegetable  food,  and  even  before 
he  had  designs  on  his  mother's  udders. 

The  theory  of  natural  selection  now  to  be 
described  affords  a  much  more  easily  under- 
stood interpretation  of  the  giraffe's  neck  or 
any  other  adaptation  to  the  environment  than 
does  that  of  Lamarck.  The  two  are  not, 
however,  necessarily  in  antagonism.  Darwin 
himself  believed  that  the  effects  of  use  and 
disuse  might  be  inherited,  and  even  in  expres- 
sing his  conviction  that  natural  selection  has 
been  the  most  important  factor  in  evolution, 


66  EUGENICS 

clearly  indicates  his  belief  that  it  was  not  the 
only  one.  The  theory  of  natural  selection 
was  enunciated  by  Darwin  and  by  Alfred 
Russel  Wallace  at  the  same  time  in  papers 
read  before  the  Linnean  Society  on  July  1, 
1858,  and  was  stated  more  fully  by  the  former 
in  the  Origin  of  Species,  which  appeared  first 
in  1859.  In  the  historical  sketch  which  forms 
an  introduction  to  this  work,  its  author  gives 
credit  to  Dr  Wells  for  having  enunciated  the 
principle  as  early  as  1813.  Dr  Wells  did  not, 
however,  see  in  it  a  possible  cause  of  Evolu- 
tion, but  merely  a  hypothesis  to  account  for 
some  of  the  characteristics  of  the  different 
varieties  of  mankind.  The  theory  of  natural 
selection  is  so  well  known  that  an  account  of 
it  may  seem  superfluous,  but  it  is  often  mis- 
understood, and  to  many  is  known  only  by 
name;  thus  for  the  sake  of  completeness  it 
will  be  stated  here  as  briefly  as  possible. 

All  animals  and  plants  reproduce  their 
kind  at  such  a  rate  that  if  nothing  occurred  to 
check  their  multiplication  the  offspring  of 
a  single  pair  could  in  a  limited  time  cover 
the  face  of  the  earth.  Thus  the  elephant  is 
the  slowest  breeder  of  all  animals,  but  in 
740  or  750  years  a  single  pair  of  elephants 
might  produce  nineteen  million  descendants, 
while  it  has  been  calculated  that  in  less  than 
this  period  a  single  pair  of  house-flies  could 
give  rise  to  a  mass  of  descendants  many  times 
the  size  of  the  earth.     A  taste  for  arithmetic 


EUGENICS  67 

assisted  by  a  table  of  logarithms  v/ould 
enable  any  one  who  knew  the  elementary 
facts  about  the  breeding  habits  of  a  few 
particular  species  to  obtain  many  such  sensa- 
tional results,  but  better  evidence  is  forth* 
coming  concerning  the  rapidity  with  which 
plants  or  animals  may  multiply  under  favour- 
able conditions.  For  example,  in  England 
the  rabbit  barely  succeeds  in  maintaining  its 
numbers,  yet  when  a  few  specimens  were 
introduced  into  Australia  in  a  very  short 
space  of  time  their  progeny  became  so 
numerous  as  to  be  a  serious  plague. 

From  a  consideration  of  these  facts  it 
follows  that  under  normal  conditions  not  all 
these  individual  animals  and  plants  which 
come  into  existence  reproduce  their  kind. 
In  many  cases  the  proportion  of  those  who  do 
so  is  a  very  small  one.  What  then  are  the 
circumstances  which  prevent  the  remainder 
from  so  doing?  It  is  unnecessary  to  answer 
this  question  in  great  detail,  and  it  would  be 
impossible,  for  the  answer  would  be  different 
in  each  particular  case;  but  one  may  say 
generally  with  regard  to  wild  animals,  in  the 
first  place,  that  they  may  fall  a  prey  to  others 
which  live  on  them ;  secondly,  they  may  not 
be  able  to  withstand  climatic  conditions,  such 
as  the  severity  of  the  winter  or  the  heat  and 
droughts  of  the  summer;  thirdly,  in  times  of 
scarcity  there  may  not  be  enough  food  to 
support  the  life  of  all,  and  many  may  starve. 


68  EUGENICS 

The  life  of  each  is  a  continuous  struggle, 
though  often  an  unconscious  one.  Indi- 
viduals compete  with  individuals,  whether 
of  the  same  or  of  a  different  species,  and  social 
groups  conflict  with  other  social  groups,  and 
species  with  species,  while  each  and  all  must 
protect  themselves  against  the  attacks  ot 
inanimate  nature.  This  baldly  stated  is 
what  is  meant  by  the  'struggle  for  existence.* 
Plants,  no  less  than  animals,  feel  its  effects, 
for  only  those  which  can  provide  themselves 
with  the  necessary  food  and  are  able  to  main- 
tain life  through  any  conditions  which  occur 
can  have  any  chance  of  reproduction. 

That  a  struggle  for  existence  of  such  a  kind 
as  has  been  described  is  one  of  the  facts  of 
life  in  wild  nature  can  hardly  be  disputed, 
and,  granting  that  variation  occurs,  it  is  not 
easy  to  dispute  that  those  who  do  succeed  in 
producing  offspring  must  be  on  the  whole  the 
better  adapted  in  structure  and  habits  to 
the  circumstances  under  which  they  live. 
Thus  it  results  that  the  *  struggle  for  exist- 
ence* leads  to  the  'survival  of  the  fittest.* 

At  this  point  a  word  or  two  must  be  said 
about  the  variation  postulated.  Variation 
means  the  appearance  in  a  species  of  individual 
differences — '  the  many  slight  differences  which 
appear  in  the  offspring  from  the  same  parents, 
or  which  it  may  be  presumed  have  thus  arisen, 
from  being  observed  in  the  individuals  of 
the  same  species  inhabiting  the  same  confined 


EUGENICS  69 

locality,  may  be  called  individual  differences.** 
*We  see  indefinite  variability  in  the  endless 
slight  peculiarities  which  distinguish  the  indi- 
viduals of  the  same  species,  and  which  cannot 
be  accounted  for  from  inheritance  from  either 
parent  or  from  some  remote  ancestor.'* 

The  theory  of  natural  selection  offers  no 
explanation  of  the  cause  of  variability,  it 
merely  presupposes  that  there  are  differences 
such  as  those  referred  to  in  the  quotations 
given  above.  If  one  admits  this,  which 
cannot  be  denied,  one  may  further  admit 
that  some  will  be  of  advantage  to  their  pos- 
sessors in  adapting  them  to  the  conditions 
under  which  they  live  and  other  disadvan- 
tageous. It  then  follows  that  the  individuals 
whose  peculiarities  are  of  the  former  kind 
will  be  better  adapted  to  their  environment, 
better  able  to  obtain  food,  to  protect  them- 
selves from  heat  and  cold,  or  from  the  assaults 
of  their  enemies.  Where  the  competition  is 
keen  and  none  can  rely  on  another's  assistance, 
it  needs  little  imagination  to  see  that  these 
■will  be  far  more  likely  to  arrive  at  maturity, 
to  take  a  mate  and  to  leave  a  numerous  pro- 
geny, than  those  who  are  less  well  adapted. 

The  next  proposition  to  be  considered  Is 
that  some  individual  differences  are  in- 
herited. This  also  can  hardly  be  controverted, 
nor  that  among  the  inherited  differences  will 
be  many  that  are  of  an  advantageous  nature; 

*  Origin  of  Species,   Chapter  II.      •  Ibid.,  Chapter  I. 


70  EUGENICS 

if  this  is  the  case,  and  if  each  generation  is 
derived  rather  more  from  the  better  than 
from  the  worse  quaHfied  members  of  the  pre- 
ceding generation,  it  follows  that  successive 
generations  will  become  on  the  whole  better 
and  better  adapted  to  their  conditions  of 
life,  though  this  adaptation  may  be  along 
divergent  lines. 

Let  us  return  again  to  the  contemplation 
of  the  giraffe.  To  understand  how  its  peculiar 
form  may  be  attributed  to  natural  selection 
it  is  necessary  to  form  some  sort  of  mental 
image  of  the  conditions  under  which  its 
ancestors  lived.  They  were  vegetarians,  and 
thus  required  a  large  volume  of  food.  We 
can  picture  them  living  on  grassy  plains 
dotted  with  a  few  trees  and  shrubs.  There 
would  have  been  other  animals  about,  some 
of  them  may  have  specialised  in  the  art 
of  eating  grass,  while  others  may  have  bared 
all  such  shrubs  which  were  not  themselves 
adapted  to  withstand  such  depredation.  We 
must  suppose  that  there  was  not  enough  food 
for  all,  and  that  the  majority  were  in  an 
almost  constant  state  of  hunger;  but  that 
some,  by  being  longer  and  stronger  in  the 
neck  than  their  brothers,  were  able  to  reach 
up  among  the  lower  branches  of  the  trees, 
and  from  time  to  time  eat  their  fill.  Superior 
vitality,  derived  from  the  enjoyment  of  a 
relatively  ample  diet,  would  have  given  the 
long-necked   ones   a   slight   advantage   over 


EUGENICS  71 

the  rest.  In  times  of  famine  they  would  have 
been  the  last  to  starve ;  in  fighting  for  a 
mate,  the  advantage  would  have  been  theirs; 
in  flight  from  a  carnivorous  foe,  theirs  would 
have  been  the  better  chance  of  escape.^ 
Thus  their  progeny  would  have  been  more 
numerous  than  that  of  the  rest,  and,  granted 
that  the  long,  strong  neck  was  inherited, 
would  also  have  had  longer  and  stronger 
necks.  The  same  process  repeated  indefi- 
nitely would  have  caused  the  average  length 
of  neck  gradually  to  increase  until  a  point 
was  reached  at  which  any  further  increase 
would  either  have  conferred  no  additional 
advantage  or  would  have  been  incompatible 
in  some  way  with  the  general  economy  of 
the  body. 

This  explanatory  instance  has  been  pur- 
posely described  in  a  very  crude  way,  the 
conditions  of  life  being  pictured  as  being  far 
less  complex  than  they  really  must  have 
been.  A  complete  description  would  be 
less  easy  to  follow  but  more  convincing. 
In  this  instance  the  Darwinian  explanation 
may  seem  less  direct  and  less  probable  than 
the  Lamarckian;  it  is,  however,  unquestion- 
ably more  in  accord  with  the  facts  of  heredity. 


*  It  may  occur  to  some  to  remark  that  a  fat  well-fed 
animal  does  not  run  as  well  as  a  lean  one  in  good  con- 
dition; to  them  I  would  answer  that  animals  in  a  wild 
and  unprotected  state  are  always  compelled  to  take 
sufficient  exercise,  and  that  food  is  never  so  abundant  as 
to  allow  of  habitual  excess. 


72  EUGENICS 

as  we  know  them,  and  is  perfectly  in  accord 
with  the  doctrine  of  the  continuity  of  the 
germplasm.  For  it  does  not  presuppose 
that  changes  produced  in  the  soma  by  the 
action  of  the  environment  so  alter  the  germ- 
plasm  that  similar  somatic  changes  are  more 
likely  to  occur  in  the  next  generation,  but 
rather  that  the  variations  on  which  natural 
selection  works  are  themselves  produced  in 
the  first  instance  by  variations  in  the  germ- 
plasm  and  thus  ex  hypothesi  inherited. 

The  question  of  the  origin  of  variations  in 
the  germplasm  is  an  interesting  and  per- 
plexing one.  Dr  Archdall  Reid  has  made  the 
ingenious  suggestion  that  here  also  the  work- 
ings of  natural  selection  may  be  detected, 
for  the  possession  of  a  variable  germplasm 
would  be  in  itself  an  advantage  to  a  stock, 
if  not  to  an  individual,  in  that  it  would  allow 
selective  adaptation  to  occur.  But  although 
this  idea  may  show  how  variability  may  be 
developed  it  does  not  really  explain  how  it 
arose  in  the  first  instance.  It  would  seem 
probable  that  the  direct  action  of  environ- 
ment must  have  been  the  operative  cause 
both  of  general  variability  and  sometimes  also 
of  specific  changes  which  may  manifest 
themselves  by  the  appearance  of  certain 
somatic  modifications  in  the  offspring. 

Darwin  believed  that  Evolution  through 
natural  selection  was  brought  about  by  the 
accumulation  of  small  variations  of  the  kind 


EUGENICS  78 

that  are  constantly  occurring.  He  recognised 
the  appearance  from  time  to  time  of  'mons- 
trosities,' that  is  to  say,  individuals  who 
differed  in  some  respect  markedly  from  all 
their  fellows,  but  was  of  opinion  that  even  if 
the  difference  exhibited  were  highly  advan- 
tageous, although  it  might  at  first  be  pre- 
served, 'it  would  generally  be  lost  by  subse- 
quent intercrossing  with  ordinary  individuals.' 
At  the  present  day  a  school  of  considerable 
importance  holds  a  different  view.  They 
recognise  two  kinds  of  variations.  The 
small  individual  differences,  the  occurrence 
of  which  is  called  'fluctuating  variability,' 
and  the  larger  differences,  corresponding  to 
some  extent  to  Darwin's  'monstrosities,* 
which  are  called  'mutations,'  though  it  is 
admitted  that  mutations  need  not  neces- 
sarily be  of  a  conspicuous  kind.  The  inherit- 
ance of  the  former  is  denied,  but  the  Mendelian 
theory,  which  will  be  described  later,  suggests 
the  means  by  which  a  mutation  occurring  in 
a  single  individual  may  be  transmitted  with- 
out being  swamped  by  intercrossing,  and  if 
of  conspicuous  advantage  may  spread  rapidly 
through  a  population. 

The  principle  of  natural  selection  is  equally 
acceptable  whatever  view  may  be  taken  of 
the  nature  of  the  characters  selected;  it  acts 
invariably  by  establishing  a  differential  birth- 
rate which  brings  about  a  relative  increase 
of   individuals    possessing   certain    qualities. 

£.  D 


74  EUGENICS 

The  differential  birth-rate  may  in  itself  be 
due  to  differentiation  either  of  the  death- 
rate  or  of  the  marriage-rate.  The  latter  in 
its  turn  may  be  due  to  a  special  form  of 
selection  called  'sexual  selection.'  Darwin 
describes  sexual  selection  in  the  following 
words  :^  'This  form  of  selection  depends 
not  on  a  struggle  for  existence  in  relation  to 
other  organic  beings  or  to  external  condi- 
tions, but  on  a  struggle  between  the  individuals 
of  one  sex,  generally  the  males,  for  the  pos- 
session of  the  other  sex.  The  result  is  not 
death  to  the  unsuccessful  competitor,  but  few 
or  no  offspring.  Sexual  selection  is,  therefore, 
less  rigorous  than  natural  selection.  Gener- 
ally, the  most  vigorous  males,  those  which 
are  best  fitted  for  their  places  in  nature,  will 
leave  most  progeny.  But  in  many  cases, 
victory  depends  not  so  much  on  general 
vigour,  as  on  having  special  weapons  confined 
to  the  male  sex.  A  hornless  stag  or  a  spurless 
cock  would  have  a  poor  chance  of  leaving 
numerous  offspring.  Sexual  selection,  by 
always  allowing  the  victor  to  breed,  might 
surely  give  indomitable  courage,  length  to 
the  spur,  and  strength  in  the  wing  to  strike 
in  the  spurred  leg,  in  nearly  the  same  manner 
as  does  the  brutal  cock-fighter  by  the  careful 
selection  of  his  best  cocks.' 

Competition  for  a  mate  does  not  necessarily 
take    the    form    of   trial    by    combat.      The 
*  Origin  of  Species,   Chapter  IV. 


EUGENICS  T5 

conscious  or  unconscious  preference  of  the 
female  for  males  in  whom  certain  characters 
are  especially  developed  would  tend  to  further 
their  propagation.  And  males  also  may 
exhibit  and  act  on  preferences  for  certain 
classes  of  females. 

The  influence  of  sexual  selection  in  man- 
kind at  the  present  day  would  form  an  inter- 
esting study  in  Eugenics,  and  one  which 
might  be  of  practical  importance.  Sexual 
selection,  guided  by  the  eugenic  ideal  rather 
than  by  sordid  desires,  would  seem  the 
surest  way  of  effecting  racial  improvement. 
No  more  need  now  be  said  on  this  point,  for 
the  theme  will  be  more  fully  developed  in 
a  subsequent  chapter. 

Variation  is  shown  not  only  in  structure 
but  also  in  habits  and  instincts.  Where 
these  are  of  a  suitable  character  they  may  be 
as  conducive  to  success  as  any  structural 
peculiarity.  The  advantages  derived  by 
those  who  act  on  the  maxim  that  'union  is 
strength'  have  thus  led  to  the  evolution  of 
gregarious  animals,  who  form  social  groups 
for  mutual  protection.  These  may  compete 
with  other  social  groups,  with  the  result 
that  good  organisation,  rather  than  the 
strength  or  cunning  of  all  the  individuals 
comjiosing  it,  becomes  the  determining  factor 
in  selection.  A  successful  group  increases  in 
size  and  spreads,  it  becomes  split  up  into 
competitive    sub-groups,    which    may    again 


76  EUGENICS 

fuse  and  again  subdi\4de,  while  in  each 
division  competition  among  individuals  may 
go  on  continually. 

The  gregarious  habit  leads  to  the  develop- 
ment of  certain  qualities  of  mind  which  con- 
duce to  the  smooth  working  of  social  life. 
These  manifest  themselves  in  the  protection 
of  individuals  who  are  unable  to  protect 
themselves.  In  man  the  struggle  for  existence 
among  the  members  of  civilised  societies  in 
so  far  as  it  implies  competition  for  the  neces- 
saries of  life  has  almost  stopped.  Society 
provides  food,  shelter,  and  clothes  for  all 
who  want  them.  Qualities  such  as  vigour  of 
body  and  mind  may  give  a  particularly 
favourable  chance  of  reproduction  to  their 
possessors,  but  the  opportunities  for  those 
who  are  relatively  lacking  in  these  qualities 
are  almost  equally  favourable,  and  are  more 
fully  seized  by  them,  owing,  maybe,  to  their 
deficiency  in  thrift,  foresight,  and  self-control. 
This  state  of  affairs  is  regarded  by  some  as 
a  cessation  of  natural  selection,  and  by  others 
as  natural  selection  grown  harmful.  It  is 
immaterial  which  view  we  take.  What  has 
happened  is  this  :  that  in  so  far  as  the  social 
habits  and  the  progress  of  the  arts  which 
depend  on  them  have  succeeded  in  adapting 
the  environment  to  man,  natiu-al  selection 
being  altogether  a  slower  and  more  wasteful 
process  is  no  longer  operating  to  adapt  man 
to  his  environment. 


EUGENICS  77 

Enough  has  been  said  to  describe  the 
essential  features  of  the  Lamarckian  and 
Darwinian  theories  of  evolution. 

From  the  point  of  view  of  the  humanitarian, 
their  particular  interest  lies  in  thcL?  relevance 
to  the  consideration  of  the  forces  able  to 
mould  society  at  the  present  day.  The  idea 
of  Eugenics  arises  almost  as  a  necessity  from 
the  theory  of  Evolution  by  Natural  Selection. 
If  we  recognise  that  Selection  has  led  to  such 
great  changes  in  the  past,  we  must  believe 
it  can  do  so  in  the  future.  Having  realised 
this,  it  should  be  our  endeavour  consciously 
to  control  it  so  that  the  changes  produced 
will  be  to  our  benefit.  In  so  far  as  we  do  so 
we  shall  replace  Natural  Selection  by  an 
artificial  selection,  and  some  see  a  danger 
in  this.  They  argue  that  Natural  Selection 
leads  to  the  survival  and  consequent  multipli- 
cation of  the  fittest,  and  thus  conducing  to 
desirable  results  should  not  be  interfered  with. 
The  fallacy  in  this  position  has  been  exposed 
again  and  again.  It  lies  in  the  fact  that  in 
this  tjrpe  of  argument  the  word  *fit*  is  used 
in  two  different  senses.*  When  one  says  that 
Natural  Selection  is  the  survival  of  the  fittest, 
one  means  merely  that  those  who  survive 
are  the  fittest  to  survive;  that  they  are 
adapted  to  their  environment,  or  their 
environment  is  adapted  to  them  in  such  a 

*  Among  others,  Mr  Balfour,  in  speaking  at  the  Banquet 
of  the  International  Eugenics  Congress,  pointed  this  out. 


JTS  EUGENICS 

way  that  they  have  and  use  the  chance  of 
increasing  and  multiplying.  This  is  the  true 
meaning  of  the  word  fitness  when  it  is  used  in 
discussing  the  theory  of  Natural  Selection. 
But  in  ordinary  language  the  word  has  quite 
a  different  significance :  it  means  in  good 
condition  or  of  good  quality,  physical  and 
mental,  as  a  continued  effect  of  nature  and 
training;  it  suggests  a  sort  of  biological  ideal 
of  what  a  man  should  be.  Now,  Eugenists 
want  to  increase  the  numbers  of  those  who 
are  fit  in  the  latter  sense,  but  they  do  not  think 
that  Natural  Selection  as  it  works  amongst 
mankind  at  the  present  day  is  likely  always 
to  help  them,  since  the  fit  in  the  former  sense 
may  include  many  undesirable  types,  there- 
fore they  urge  the  introduction  of  artificial 
selection,  where  it  is  practicable  under 
'existing  conditions  of  law  and  sentiment.* 

Other  groups  which  desire  and  are  working 
for  the  same  ultimate  object,  base  their 
efforts  on  the  Lamarckian  rather  than  on  the 
Darwinian  theory  of  Evolution.  They  believe 
that  progressive  improvement  in  human  life 
may  be  rendered  possible  simply  by  improving 
the  conditions  of  life.  Perhaps  those  who 
hold  these  views  should  also  be  called 
Eugenists.  They  would  then  have  to  be 
labelled  as  Lamarckian  Eugenists  to  distin- 
guish them  from  the  Darwinian  Eugenists,  of 
whom  Sir  Francis  Galton,  the  founder  of  the 
Science,  was  one. 


EUGENICS  W 

Though  the  majority  of  persons  who  give 
the  subject  a  thought  attribute  the  wide 
variety  of  habit  and  structure  exhibited  by 
animals  and  plants  to  the  work  of  evolution, 
it  is  probable  that  the  old  and  highly  respect- 
able theory  of  'special  creation'  still  survives. 
It  has  the  merit  of  being  so  simple  as  to  re- 
quire no  thought  or  knowledge  for  its  under- 
standing, aiid  so  devoid  of  any  basis  of  reason 
as  to  be  quite  imassailable  by  argmnent. 
It  is  true  that  a  series  of  fossil  organisms 
gradually  increasing  in  complexity  are  found 
as  one  explores  first  the  older  and  deeper 
strata  then  those  more  shallow  and  more 
recent;  it  may  be  urged  that  this  would 
appear  to  conflict  with  the  notion  that  in 
a  certain  week  of  the  year  4004  b.c.  all  the 
myriad  species  which  we  now  recognise  were 
established  in  the  present  form  by  the 
creative  act  of  the  Deity,  but  the  thorough- 
going creationist  has  two  alternative  answers 
ready  to  meet  any  objections  raised  on  these 
or  similar  grounds.  First,  'when  God  made 
the  rocks  He  made  the  fossils  also.*  Secondly, 
*the  devil  made  the  fossils  in  order  to  tempt 
mankind  into  propounding  and  believing  in 
the  heretical  and  soul-destroying  fallacy  of 
Evolution.' 

In  recent  years  churchmen  have  for  the 
most  part  frankly  accepted  the  teachings  of 
science,  and  Evolution  is  no  longer  a  ground 
of  conflict  between  science  and  religion;  but 


80  EUGENICS 

the  special  creation  theory  still  appears  to 
linger  on.  In  particular,  it  is  implied  in  the 
view  that  all  babies  are  equal  by  nature  at 
birth,  and  only  become  different  subsequently 
owing  to  the  action  on  them  of  differejit 
environments.  This  is  a  view  on  which  many 
social  reformers  appear  to  act,  but  it  is  incom- 
patible with  the  acceptance  of  any  theory 
of  Evolution. 

SUMMARY  OF   CHAPTER 

The  theory  of  the  'continuity  of  the  germ- 
plasm'  is  now  generally  accepted  as  a  general 
description  of  the  mechanism  by  which  the 
resemblances  shown  by  members  of  the  same 
family  to  one  another,  in  so  far  as  they  are 
due  to  inheritance,  are  brought  about.  In 
the  case  of  sexual  reproduction,  each  indi- 
vidual receives  a  portion  of  germplasm  from 
his  father  and  another  portion  from  his 
mother.  All  the  characters  of  body  or  mind 
which  he  develops  during  his  life  are  deter- 
mined partly  by  the  nature  of  this  germ- 
plasm  and  partly  by  the  action  of  the  environ- 
ment. Very  early  in  the  life  of  the  individual 
a  portion  of  it  is  set  aside,  and  takes  no  part 
in  the  building  up  of  the  body.  It  increases 
by  growth,  and  is  divided  up  and  stored  in 
sexual  cells,  from  which  in  turn  fresh  indi- 
viduals of  the  next  generation  are  produced. 
Thus  each  individual  springs  from  the  germ- 
plasms   which  gave  rise  to  its   father  and 


EUGENICS  81 

mother,  and  as  the  germplasm  must  be  the 
principal  factor  in  determining  the  characters 
of  the  body,  it  follows  that  children  must 
tend  to  resemble  their  parents,  brothers  and 
sisters,  and  other  relatives,  since  they  are 
derived  to  a  greater  or  less  extent  from  the 
same  germplasm. 

Theories  of  organic  evolution  endeavour  to 
explain  how  by  the  operation  of  natural  laws 
the  coimtless  forms  of  hfe,  with  all  their 
individual  complexity,  may  have  been  evolved 
from  something  comparatively  simple.  There 
are  two  principal  theories  of  Evolution.  The 
earlier  is  that  of  Lamarck,  which  attributes  it 
largely  to  the  inheritance  of  the  effects  of 
the  use  or  disuse  of  certain  organs  or  modifi- 
cations of  the  body  produced  by  the  direct 
action  of  the  environment.  The  Theory  of 
Natural  Selection  by  the  survival  of  the 
forms  better  adapted  to  their  surroundings  in 
the  struggle  for  existence,  propoimded  by 
Charles  Da»*win  and  Alfred  Russel  Wallace, 
is  the  other.  The  facts  of  heredity  as  we  know 
them  are  more  in  accordance  with  the  latter 
than  the  former.  So  is  the  theory  of  the 
continuity  of  the  germplasm.  It  would  be 
quite  conceivable  that  the  inheritance  of 
the  effects  of  use  and  disuse  should  have 
aided  Natural  Selection,  but  the  evidence 
available  hardly  favours  this  view.  On 
the  other  hand,  there  is  a  very  strong 
probability    that  Natural    Selection   is   one 


82  EUGENICS 

of  the  causes  of  Evolution,  if  not  its  only 
cause. 

Any  endeavour  to  improve  progressively 
the  mental  and  physical  qualities  of  man- 
kind must,  consciously  or  unconsciously, 
model  itself  on  some  theory  of  Evolution. 
Those  who  would  strive  to  do  this  merely  by 
the  improvement  of  the  environment  try  to 
establish  a  parallel  to  the  process  described 
by  Lamarck.  They  may  be  called  Lamarckian 
Eugenists.  Those  who,  following  Sir  Francis 
Galton,  rely  on  the  exercise  of  conscious 
selection  applied  by  any  means  practicable 
under  existing  conditions  may  justify  their 
view  by  an  appeal  to  Natural  Selection. 
Others,  again,  make  no  endeavour  to  effect 
a  progressive  improvement,  but  believing  that 
the  species  is  inmiutable,  aim  only  at  making 
the  circumstances  as  favourable  as  possible 
for  the  development  of  the  immediate 
generation.  These  have  no  biological  basis 
on  which  to  work  but  the  theory  of  Special 
Creation. 

CHAPTER  V 

MENDELISM 

The  study  of  inheritance  in  recent  years  has 
been  pursued  vigorously  along  two  different 
paths.  First,  by  the  statistical  summarisation 
of  the  facts,  a  process  introduced  by  Sir  Francis 


EUGENICS  83 

Galton;  and,  secondly,  by  the  experimental 
hybridisation  of  animals  and  plants.  The 
latter  method,  when  carried  out  on  the  lines 
laid  down  by  Gregor  Mendel,  has  alone  led 
to  some  real  understanding  of  the  underlying 
physiological  processes,  and  it  appears 
capable  of  leading  to  more. 

Our  consideration  of  heredity,  the  central 
problem  in  Eugenics  from  which  all  the 
others  radiate,  will  therefore  be  initiated  with 
an  account  of  Mendel  and  his  work. 

Gregor  Johann  Mendel  was  bom  in  Austrian 
Silesia  in  1822,  the  birth-year  also  of  Sir 
Francis  Galton.  He  entered  the  monastery 
at  Altbriinn  in  1843,  but  left  it  for  a  time  to 
study  physics  and  natural  science  at  Vienna 
in  1851-3.  For  a  time  he  taught  in  the  school 
at  Briinn,  but  afterwards  became  abbot  of 
the  monastery.    He  died  in  1884. 

His  papers  on  plant  hybridisation,  which 
form  the  basis  of  the  science  of  Genetics, 
were  read  before  the  meetings  of  the  Briinn 
Naturalists'  Society  in  1865  (the  year  in  which 
Galton  first  expressed  his  views  on  Eugenics), 
and  published  in  their  journal.  They  were 
neglected  till  1900,  when  they  were  inde- 
pendently discovered,  and  the  experiments 
repeated  by  Correns,  Tchermak,  and  De 
Vries. 

Mendel  selected  pea  plants  for  hybridisation 
for  two  reasons :  first,  that  the  different 
varieties  have  constant  distinctive  characters; 


84  EUGENICS 

and,  secondly,  that  it  is  comparatively  easy  to 
ensure  that  no  other  pollen  but  that  desired 
by  the  experimenter  shall  be  used  for  fertilis- 
ing them.  It  is  not  necessary  to  give  a  com- 
plete description  of  his  experiments,  for  the 
principles  ascertained  from  them  can  be 
clearly  understood  by  studying  one  or  two. 
As  an  example  may  be  taken,  the  crossing  of 
a  tall  variety  of  pea  in  which  the  plants 
grow  normally  to  a  height  of  six  feet  with 
a  dwarf  variety  averaging  about  1^  feet  in 
height.  As  it  is  necessary  to  be  able  to  refer 
definitely  to  each  generation  produced  in  an 
experiment  of  this  kind,  a  simple  nomen- 
clature has  been  devised  for  the  purpose. 
The  original  pairs,  are  called  the  parental 
generation,  abbreviated  into  P.  The  plants 
which  are  raised  from  the  seeds  which  they 
set,  are  the  first  filial  generation,  F^;  the  seeds 
of  the  Fj  generation  grow  into  the  plants  of 
the  second  filial  generation,  Fg,  and  so  on. 

In  this  case  all  the  plants  of  the  F^  genera- 
tion were  tall,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  one  of 
the  parents  was  a  dwarf;  there  were  no 
intermediate  forms.  Self-fertilisation  was 
allowed  to  occur,  the  ovules  of  each  flower 
being  fertilised  by  its  own  pollen,  and  seeds 
were  set.  These  in  turn  were  planted  and 
gi*ew  up  into  the  Fj  generation.  Plants  were 
thus  raised,  of  which  787  were  tall  and  277 
dwarfs.  Thus  dwarf  plants  which  disappeared 
in   the   F^   generation   reappeared   again   in 


EUGENICS  85 

about  a  quarter  of  the  plants  of  the  Fj 
generation,  and  in  experiments  in  which 
different  pairs  of  characters  were  crossed  the 
same  thing  happened.  The  proportions 
varied  slightly,  sometimes  being  a  little  more 
than  three  of  the  one  kind  to  one  of  the  other, 
sometimes  a  little  less,  as  would  naturally 
occur  if  the  plants  actually  grown  were 
samples  chosen  at  random  from  a  very  large 
number  in  which  the  two  forms  were  accu- 
rately mixed  in  the  proportion  of  three  to  one. 
The  dwarf  plants  which  reappeared  in  the  Fj 
generation  were  again  self-fertilised  and  bred 
true  to  that  character  through  all  succeeding 
generations;  that  is  to  say,  their  immediate 
descendants  were  all  dwarfs,  and  tallness  did 
not  again  reappear  in  the  stock.  Of  the  taH 
Fg's,  one-third  bred  true  to  this  character, 
giving  rise  when  self-fertilised  only  to  tall 
plants.  That  is  to  say,  that  two  groups,  each 
consisting  of  one  quarter  of  the  whole  number 
of  plants  produced  in  this  generation,  of 
which  one  was  tall  and  the  other  dwarf, 
bred  as  true  to  these  characters  as  the  strains 
which  were  crossed  in  the  first  instance. 
The  other  half  were  all  tall,  but  when  self- 
fertilised  did  not  breed  true  but  behaved  like 
the  plants  of  the  Fj  generation,  giving  again 
one-quarter  dv^arf  and  three-quarters  taU. 

As  the  latter  character  in  the  original  cross 
seemed  entirely  to  dominate  the  former,  it 
was   called  the   dominant   character;    while 


86  EUGENICS 

the  former,  which  disappeared  in  F^,  then 
reappeared  in  a  quarter  of  the  plants  of  F,, 
receivied  the  name  of  recessive.  All  plants 
showing  the  recessive  character  bred  true, 
but  those  with  the  dominant  character  were 
of  two  kinds,  the  one,  the  pure  dominants 
breeding  true,  while  the  other,  sometimes 
called  impure  dominants,  behaved  like  the 
original  hybrids.  The  whole  process  can  be 
shown  schematically  much  more  clearly  than 
it  can  be  described  in  writing.  Let  T  stand 
for  tall  plants  which  breed  true,  T(D)  for 
tall  plants  which  do  not  breed  true,  and  D 
for  the  dwarfs.  Let  us  suppose  that  one 
T  is  crossed  with  a  D.  Then  the  F^  genera- 
tion will  all  be  T(D).  Let  us  take  one  of  these 
and  trace  out  what  its  descendants  will  be 
on  the  supposition  that  it  is  self-fertilised 
and  sets  four  seeds,  which  grow  into  healthy 
plants,  and  that  these  and  each  plant  of 
subsequent  generations  are  also  self-fertilised 
and  set  four  seeds.  Then  the  pedigree  will 
be  as  follows  : — 


TxD 

T(D) 

Generation. 
-  P 
-F, 

1 

T 

1 
2T(D) 

Jo 

1 

16D 

-F, 

4T      2T 

1 
4T,D) 

1 
2D 

1 
8D 

1 

-Fa 

16T    8T 

1         1 

1 
4T 

1      1 

8T(D) 

1            1 

1 
4D 

1 

-F, 

64T  32T  16T  8T  16T(D)  8D  16D    32D  C4D     -  F^ 
FlOUBE   1. 


EUGENICS  87 

Thus  far  we  have  merely  endeavoured  to 
describe  what  happens;  it  is  now  necessary 
to  examine  the  explanation  which  has  been 
offered  of  the  facts.  Mendel's  original  inter- 
pretation will  not  be  referred  to,  as  another 
has  been  put  forward  in  recent  years,  which 
is  essentially  the  same  in  principle,  is  much 
more  easy  to  understand,  and  accounts  for 
a  wider  range  of  facts. 

In  sexual  reproduction,  male  and  female 
contributions  of  different  outward  form,  but 
equivalent  as  agenis  for  inheritance,  unite 
to  form  the  zygote  which  by  its  growth  and 
differentiation  is  converted  into  the  adult 
animal  or  plant.  The  two  elements  which 
thus  unite  are  called  gameteSy  a  word  derived 
from  the  Greek,  and  suggesting  an  analogy 
between  the  fusion  of  the  gametes  and 
marriage.  The  essential  part  of  the  gametes 
is  the  germplasm. 

To  turn  from  these  definitions  to  the  con- 
crete instance  of  the  tall  and  dwarf  peas. 
The  theory  supposes  that  tallness  is  repre- 
sented in  all  the  gametes  produced  by  a  true 
breeding  pea  which  displays  it,  by  a  single 
indivisible  factor.  It  is  not  necessary  in 
order  to  understand  the  theory  to  have  any 
idea  what  may  be  the  ultimate  nature  of  the 
factor.  It  is  further  supfKJsed  that  dwarf 
peas  produce  gametes  in  which  this  factoi 
is  invariably  absent.  Thus  when  a  fresh 
zygote  is  formed  by  breeding  together    anj 


88  EUGENICS 

two  peas  belonging  to  these  two  classes  it 
may  be  of  three  different  kinds. 

(1)  The  tallness  factor  may  be  included  in 
the  gametes  of  both  parents,  in  which  case 
the  zygote  may  be  called  duplex^  in  respect 
to  it,  a  word  which  is  intended  to  signify 
that  it  contains  the  factor  twice  over. 

(2)  The  factor  may  be  brought  in  only  by 
one  parent,  in  which  case  the  zygote  is  called 
simplex, 

(8)  Neither  of  the  two  gametes  may  con- 
tain it,  sand  then  the  zygote  is  called 
niUliplex. 

In  all  cases  of  Mendelian  inheritance, 
individuals  which  are  duplex  with  regard  to 
a  particular  factor  display  the  character  which 
is  represented  in  the  germplasm  by  that 
factor,  and  nulliplex  individuals  the  char- 
acter which  is  developed  in  its  absence.  In 
the  case  we  are  considering,  and  in  all  cases 
in  which  the  one  character  is  dominant  over 
the  other,  the  presence  of  a  single  dose  of  the 
factor  in  the  zygote  is  sufficient  to  bring  about 
the  development  of  the  factorial  character. 
It  is  thus  displayed  by  all  the  simplex  indi- 
viduals. In  other  cases  there  may  be  no 
dominance  or  incomplete  dominance;  in 
other  words,  simplex  may  be  intermediate  in 

*  These  terms  were  introduced  by  Dr  C.  B.  Davenport. 
According  to  the  older  terminology,  both  duplex  and 
nulliplex  forms  are  described  as  homozygotes,  because 
similar  gametes  unite  to  form  the  zygote.  Simplex  forms 
are  styled  heterozygotes. 


EUGENICS  89 

character  between  duplex  and  nuUipIex,  or 
be  entirely  different  from  either. 

Duplex  individuals  produce  only  gametes 
which  contain  the  factor;  in  the  gametes  of 
the  nulliplex  it  is  invariably  absent,  while 
in  one  half  the  gametes  of  the  simplex  it  is 
present  and  in  the  other  half  absent.  ^  Let  us 
consider  what  happens  in  the  event  of  self- 
fertilisation  in  a  pea  which  is  simplex  with 
regard  to  the  tallness  factor.  Let  those  of 
its  gametes  which  have  the  factor  be  written 
T,  and  those  which  do  not  possess  it  t.  For 
the  present  purpose  we  may  regard  the 
ovules  and  pollen  grains  as  the  male  and 
female  gametes.  Then  half  the  ovules  and 
half  the  pollen  grains  will  contain  the  tallness 
factor  and  half  will  not,  and  every  100  ovules 
fertilised  will  probably  consist  of  50  T  and 
60  t.  Each  of  these  may  be  fertilised  by  a 
pollen  grain  T  or  a  pollen  grain  t.  Thus, 
according  to  the  law  of  probability,  half  the 
60  T  ovules  will  be  likely  to  be  fertilised 
with  T  pollen  grains  and  half  with  t  pollen 
grains,  and  the  zygote  formed  from  them 
may  thus  be  written  25  TT  +  25T<,  similarly 
from  the  50  t  ovules  25  tT  zygotes +  25  ft 
zygotes  will  be  developed. 

The  TT  zygotes  are  duplex.  The  <T  do 
not   differ  from  the  T<,   and  are    simplex, 

*The  case  would  not  be  altered  if,  instead  of  self- 
fertilisation,  fertilisation  by  another  individual  with  the 
same  gametic  constitution  took  plac«>- 


00  EUGENICS 

while  the  U  are  nuUiplex.  Therefore,  accord- 
ing to  the  hypothesis,  if  two  simplex  indi- 
viduals are  bred  together,  one  half  of  the 
offspring  will  be  simplex,  one  quarter  duplex, 
and  one  quarter  nuUiplex.  An  enormous 
number  of  experiments  performed  on  a  large 
variety  of  animals  and  plants  have  shown 
that  this  actually  occurs.  Thus  the  theory 
does  in  reality  provide  an  adequate  explana- 
tion of  facts  of  this  kind.  It  may  also  be 
checked  by  slightly  varying  the  experiments. 

To  take  an  example  from  studies  in  inherit- 
ance of  coat  colour  in  mice.  In  this  case 
the  assumption  is  made  that  pigment  is 
formed  in  the  hair  and  eyes,  if  a  pigment- 
producing  factor  is  present  in  the  zygote. 
When  it  is  absent,  no  pigment  is  formed, 
and  the  mouse  which  lacks  it  is  an  albino 
with  white  hair  and  pink  eyes.  If  the  gametes 
containing  the  factor  are  written  C,  and  those 
not  containing  it  are  written  c,  then  the 
gametic  constitution  of  an  albino  mouse  is 
always  cc,  but  that  of  a  coloured  mouse  may 
be  either  cC  or  CC.  The  nuUiplex  cc  when 
bred  together  will  always  produce  albinos, 
and  nothing  but  albinos,  and  the  duplex  CC 
produce  nothing  but  coloured  mice;  but  when 
the  simplex  cC  are  mated  with  one  another, 
one    quarter    of    the    offspring    are    albinos. 

Very  numerous  experiments,  including 
some  performed  by  the  present  writer,  have 
demonstrated  the  truth  of  the  facts.     Now 


EUGENICS  91 

let  us  suppose  that  the  simplex  forms  are 
bred  with  albinos  instead  of  among  them- 
selves, what  will  be  the  result?  According 
to  the  theory,  half  the  gametes  of  the  simplex 
will  be  C  and  half  c,  whereas  all  the  gametes 
of  the  albinos  will  be  c;  therefore,  half  the 
number  of  young  mice  produced  ought  to  have 
a  gametic  constitution  Cc,  and  the  other  half 
cc.  All  the  former  class  should  have  coloured 
coats  and  dark  eyes,  and  all  the  latter  white 
coats  and  pink  eyes,  and  this  is  what  acutally 
occiu^. 

The  most  important  of  the  Mendelian 
hypotheses  are :  firstly,  that  a  character 
which  is  transmitted  by  inheritance  ^vithout 
splitting  up  or  being  diluted  or  altered  is 
represented  in  the  gametes  by  one  indivisible 
factor.  The  gamete  either  contains  this 
factor  or  it  does  not  contain  it;  it  must  either 
contain  it  whole  and  pure  or  be  entirely  free 
from  it.  This  is  the  hypothesis  of  ^gametic 
purity.*  The  characters  represeii+,ed  by  single 
factors  are  called  ^unit  characters.' 

Secondly,  of  the  gametes  produced  by  a 
simplex  individual,  half  will  normally  con- 
tain the  factor  and  the  other  half  will  not 
contain  it. 

Cytology,  a  science  which  deals  with  the 
structure  and  development  of  the  innumer- 
able little  masses  of  living  matter  which 
built  together  form  the  body,  has  almost 
brought  this  assumption  into  the  realms  ol 


92  EUGENICS 

observed  fact.  The  significance  of  many 
complex  processes,  described  with  the  aid 
of  the  microscope  long  before  the  Mendelian 
theory  attracted  any  attention,  was  not 
fully  appreciated  till  viewed  in  the  light 
which  it  shed,  while  the  theory  itself  pro- 
pounded before  such  observations  were  made 
has  been  in  turn  corroborated  by  them. 

Its  principles,  when  once  grasped,  seem 
wonderfully  simple;  but  in  practical  hybrid- 
isation many  complications  arise  which  can 
only  be  unravelled  by  the  use  of  a  consider- 
able amoimt  of  ingenuity,  coupled  with  train- 
ing and  experience.  How  complexity  may 
be  introduced  into  the  results  may  be  readily 
understood  by  considering  what  happens 
when  two  varieties  are  crossed  which  differ 
not  only  in  one  character  but  in  two  or  more. 
An  example  of  this  may  be  taken  from 
Mendel's  experiments.  The  ripe  dry  pea,  the 
seed  of  the  pea  plant,  in  some  varieties  is 
yellow  in  colour  and  in  others  green,  in  some 
it  is  smooth  and  round,  and  in  others  it  has 
a  shrivelled,  wrinkled  appearance.  These 
characters  of  the  seed  are  characters  of  the 
embryo  plant  which  it  contains.  The  colour 
of  the  two  cotyledons  or  seed  leaves,  which 
form  the  greater  part  of  the  embryo,  is  seen 
through  the  more  or  less  transparent  seed 
coat  which  covers  them,  and  their  form, 
whether  roimd  or  wrinkled,  gives  the  form 
to  the'  seed.    Yellowness  is  due  to  the  presence 


EUGENICS  93 

in  the  zygote  of  a  factor  which  is  absent  in 
the  green  pea,  and  roundness  is  due  to  the 
presence  of  another  factor  which  is  absent 
in  the  wrinkled  pea.*  Peas  in  the  condition 
in  which  one  hopes  to  find  them  on  the  table 
are  all  round  and  green,  whatever  character 
they  may  assume  when  they  are  dry.  The 
factor  which  determines  yellowness  does  so 
by  causing  the  original  green  pigment  to 
fade,  thus  revealing  yellow  pigment  which 
is  also  present;  and  that  which  enables  the 
pea  to  keep  its  original  roundness  operates 
by  converting  the  sugar,  present  in  the  moist 
condition  of  both  varieties,  into  starch.  Ths 
starch,  by  permanently  retaining  much  more 
water  than  the  sugar,  prevents  the  wrinkling 
which  is  caused  by  the  excessive  loss  of 
moisture  in  drying. 

If  a  round  yellow  pea  is  crossed  with  a 
green  wrinkled  one  the  Fj  generation  will 
be  all  round  and  yellow.  If  R  represents  the 
factor  for  roundness  and  r  its  absence,  and 
if  Y  represents  the  factor  for  yellowness  and 
y  its  absence,  the  gametic  constitution  of 
the  peas  of  this  generation  can  be  written 
Rr,  Yy.  When  they  grow  into  plants  they 
may  form  gametes  of  four  different  kinds, 
for  each  may  contain  either  R  or  r  in  con- 
junction with  either  Y  or  y.  If  self-fertilisa- 
tion takes  place,  each  of  these  four  different 

*  Vide     Darbishire,    Breeding     and     the     Mendelian 
Discovery, 


94  EUGENICS 

kinds  of  gametes  may  unite  either  with  another 
of  the  same  kind,  or  with  one  of  the  three 
other  kinds,  and  zygotes  built  up  in  sixteen 
different  ways  may  thus  be  obtained.  They 
are  all  equally  likely  to  occur,  and  they  can 
be  represented  as  follows  : — 

(1)  RY.RY.  (5)  R>'.RY.  (9)   yY.RY.  (13)  r>'.RY. 

(2)  RY-Ry.  (6)  Ry.Ry.  (10)  rY.Ry.  (14)  ry.Ry. 

(3)  RY.rY.  (7)  Ry.rY.  (11)  rY.rY.  (15)  ry.rY. 

(4)  RY.ry.  (8)  Ry.ry.  (12)  rY^y.  (16)  ry.ry. 

Although  the  zygotes  are  formed  in  sixteen 
different  ways,  there  are  not  in  reality  sixteen 
different  gametic  combinations,  but  only 
nine. 

If  a  diagonal  line  is  drawn  from  the  left- 
hand  top  corner  of  the  figure  to  the  right- 
hand  bottom  corner,  it  will  cut  through  four 
combinations  which  occur  each  only  once, 
namely— (1)  RY  RY,  (6)  Ry  Ry,  (11)  rY  rY, 
(16)  ry  ry.  On  the  other  hand,  all  the  four 
combinations  which  lie  on  the  other  diagonal 
— namely,  Nos.  (4),  (7),  (10),  and  (13) — are 
in  reality  the  same,  each  containing  both 
R  and  Y  and  r  and  y.  There  are  four  other 
combinations  which  occur,  each  twice  over — ■ 
(2)  and  (5),  (3)  and  (9),  (8)  and  (14),  and  (12) 
and  (15).  But  although  there  would  in 
reality  be  nine  different  kinds  of  zygotes, 
only  four  different  kinds  of  pea  would  be 
distinguishable  by  their  external  (somatic) 
characters,  for  the  same  character  is  developed 


EUGENICS  95 

whether  the  factor  is  present  either  singly  or 
doubly  in  the  zygote.  All  those  peas  whose 
zygotes  contained  R  would  be  round,  and  all 
those  containing  Y  yellow.  Nine  of  them — 
namely,  Nos.  (1),  (2),  (3),  (4),  (5),  (7),  (9). 
(10),  (13) — contain  both  R  and  Y,  and  would, 
consequently,  be  both  round  and  yellow. 
Three— namely,  Nos.  (11),  (12),  (15) — con- 
tain Y,  but  do  not  contain  R,  these  would  be 
yellow  and  wrinkled.  Three — ^namely,  Nos. 
(6),  (8),  and  (14)— contain  R,  but  not  Y,  and 
would  be  round  and  green,  while  one  niunber 
(16)  contains  neither  R  nor  Y,  and  would  be 
wrinkled  and  green. 

Any  one  who  wishes  to  understand  these 
deductions  from  the  Mendelian  theory  is 
recommended  to  provide  himself  (or  herself) 
with  an  adequate  supply  of  patience,  a  large 
sheet  of  paper  and  a  pencil,  and  to  figure  out 
for  himself  (or  herself)  how  many  different 
kinds  of  hybrids  could  be  produced  if  one 
were  to  breed  from  varieties  differing  in 
three,  four,  five,  or  more  unit  characters.  In 
each  case,  with  regard  to  each  factor,  he  can 
make  the  alternative  assumptions  that  the 
simplex  form  displays  somatic  characters 
similar  to  that  of  the  duplex,  intermediate 
between  duplex  and  nulliplex,  or  entirely 
different  to  either.  The  complexity  of  the 
results  obtained  will  surprise  and  possibly 
confuse  him.  In  actual  experimental  work 
further  complications  are  introduced  by  the 


96  EUGENICS 

fact  that  the  different  factors  may  exhibit 
mutual  attractions  or  repulsions,  so  that  two 
factors  controlling  the  development  of  differ- 
ent somatic  characters  may  always  be,  or 
never  be,  transmitted  in  the  same  gamete. 

Up  to  this  point  we  have  spoken  as  if  the 
somatic  character  depended  on  one  and  only 
one  gametic  factor,  but  many  characters 
which  have  been  shown  to  be  inherited  in 
a  Mendelian  way  depend  on  the  presence  or 
absence  of  two  or  more.  One  of  the  most 
interesting  and  economically  important  cases 
of  this  kind  is  that  of  the  inheritance  of 
fecundity,  or  the  egg-laying  faculty  in  poultry, 
which  has  recently  been  worked  out  by  Dr 
Raymond  Pearl,  of  the  Maine  Experiment 
Station,  U.S.A. 

The  problem  which  he  has  elucidated  is 
a  particularly  difficult  one,  and  many  people 
have  in  consequence  denied  that  fecundity 
is  inherited.  The  denial  was  reiterated  some 
months  after  the  publication  of  Dr  Pearl's 
results  by  the  writer  of  a  special  article  on 
poultry-raising  in  the  Times.  Dr  Pearl  has 
discovered  that  the  egg-laying  capacity  of 
hens  depends  on  the  presence  or  absence  of 
three  separate  factors  in  the  zygote,  which 
are  inherited  in  a  simple  Mendelian  manner, 
except  that  there  is  repulsion  between  two  of 
them,  so  that  they  are  never  present  together 
in  the  same  gamete.  The  egg-laying  capacity 
is   judged  by  the   number   of   eggs   laid   in 


EUGENICS  97 

the  winter  months.  Although  this  depends 
normally  on  environmental  conditions,  the 
disturbing  influence  of  the  latter  can  be 
practically  eliminated  in  experiments  per- 
formed by  competent  people  on  a  well- 
equipped  farm.  The  three  factors  are  dis- 
tinguished by  the  letters  F,  L,  and  Lo.  When 
all  three  are  present  in  the  zygote  the  highest 
degree  of  fecundity  is  shown,  which  is  found 
to  correspond  to  a  winter  production  of  more 
than  thirty  eggs.  When  F  and  either  L  or  Lj 
are  present  together,  one  to  thirty  eggs  are 
laid.  A  double  dose  of  L,  which  may  be 
present,  does  not  produce  any  greater  fecun- 
dity than  a  single  dose.  L3  cannot  be  present 
twice  over,  because  it  is  never  transmitted 
in  the  same  gamete  as  F.  When  F  is  present 
alone,  the  number  is  reduced  to  nothing; 
but  when  F  is  absent,  although  both  L  and 
Lg  may  be  present  and  transmitted  to  the 
next  generation,  no  eggs  are  laid,  for  the  fowl 
is  not  a  hen  but  a  cock. 

The  statement  contained  in  the  last  sen- 
tence involves  a  theory  which  has  been  seized 
upon  by  some  'feminist*  writers  as  a  demon- 
stration of  the  essential  superiority  of  women 
over  men — namely,  that  femaleness  depends 
on  the  presence  of  a  factor  (referred  to  as 
F  in  the  above  description)  which  is  absent 
in  the  male.  The  feminist  contention  need 
hardly  be  answered  seriously;  but  the  theory 
itself  is  one  of  some  importance,  and  helps 


08  EUGENICS 

to  explain,  on  Mendelian  lines,  instances  of 
inheritance  which  would  otherwise  be  difficult 
to  understand. 

If  femaleness  is  determined  by  the  presence 
of  an  additional  factor,  one  must  suppose 
that  the  male  is  nulliplex,  and  produces  only 
gametes  which  do  not  contain  F,  and  that 
the  female  is  invariably  simplex,  producing 
gametes  of  which  about  half  contain  it  and 
the  other  half  do  not.  As  sexual  reproduction 
necessitates  that  one  gamete  must  be  derived 
from  the  male  and  the  other  from  the  female, 
half  the  zygotes  produced  must  be  simplex 
and  the  other  half  nulliplex,  and  so  about 
equal  numbers  of  males  and  females  are 
born. 

The  theory  that  sex  itself  is  inherited  on 
Mendelian  lines  in  the  manner  thus  described 
has  been  used  by  Dr  Archdall  Reid  as  an 
argument  against  attributing  too  much 
importance  to  Mendelism.  His  view,  stated 
for  brevity  in  a  teleological  form,  is  that 
Mendelian  inheritance  has  been  evolved  solely 
for  the  purpose  of  keeping  the  sexes  distinct, 
and  preventing  the  blending  of  sexual 
characters,  consequently  that  beyond  the 
primary  sexual  characters  only  those  which 
are  connected  in  some  way  with  sex  are 
transmitted  in  a  Mendelian  way.  Dr  Reid's 
suggestion  can  hardly  be  accepted,  as  it  in- 
volves a  very  unnatural  straining  of  the 
limits  of  the  class  of  characters  associated 


EUGENICS  99 

with  sex;  but  it  is  useful  in  correcting  the 
inference,  sometimes  rather  too  readily 
drawn,  that  because  a  large  and  increasing 
number  of  characters  are  known  to  be  in- 
herited according  to  Mendel's  laws,  therefore 
if  the  facts  were  before  us  it  would  be  found 
that  all  are.  But,  although  according  to  the 
views  of  the  present  writer  the  time  for  belief 
in  the  universal  applicability  of  these  laws  is 
a  long  way  off,  it  may  be  difficult  to  disprove 
that  they  control  any  individual  case,  for  if 
a  character  depends  on  the  presence  in  the 
zygote  of  a  large  number  of  factors,  although 
each  may  be  transmitted  strictly  in  accord- 
ance with  them,  the  combined  result  might 
be  so  complicated  as  to  defy  analysis. 

A  case  which  may  perhaps  be  taken  as  an 
instance  of  this  possibility  is  the  blending  of 
human  skin  colour  in  inheritance.  In  crosses 
between  negroes  and  white  men,  all  inter- 
mediate shades  between  those  characteristic 
of  the  two  races  appear  to  occur,  and  as 
a  general  rule  the  less  negro  blood  is  present 
the  lighter  is  the  colour.  At  first  sight  this 
would  appear  to  be  an  undoubted  example 
of  non-Mendelian  inheritance,  but,  in  the 
light  of  what  has  been  said  above,  it  would 
be  very  unwise  to  assume  this  immediately, 
particularly  as  it  has  been  found,  now  that 
a  somewhat  closer  attention  has  been  given 
to  the  facts,  that  white  or  negro  babies  are 
sometimes  bom  to  parents  from  whom  they 


100  EUGENICS 

would  hardly  be  expected.  Mendelism  often 
provides  a  more  charitable  and  more  probable 
explanation  of  such  phenomena  than  the 
suggestion  of  conjugal  infidelity. 

At  this  point  those  readers  who  have  not 
already  given  the  chapter  up  may  well  ask, 
What  has  all  this  talk  about  peas  and  mice 
and  fowls,  or  even  unexpected  negro  babies, 
got  to  do  with  Eugenics?  The  answer  is 
that  Mendelism  is  capable  of  providing  in 
some  cases  a  surer  guide  to  knowledge  of 
probable  characters  in  the  offspring  of  con- 
templated human  matings  than  any  method 
yet  suggested;  further,  that  Mendelism  can 
only  be  properly  investigated  by  experi- 
mental breeding  which  cannot  be  performed 
on  human  beings.  In  so  far  as  it  applies 
to  human  beings  it  can  only  be  studied  by 
the  examination  of  pedigrees  interpreted 
with  the  aid  of  the  knowledge  derived  from 
experiments. 

Several  clear  cases  of  Mendelian  inheritance 
in  man  are  now  recognised,  though  the 
majority  of  them  have  little  Eugenic  signifi- 
cance. One  of  the  clearest  is  the  inheritance 
of  eye-colour,  which  has  been  investigated 
by  Major  Hurst  in  England  and  Dr  Davenport 
in  America,  to  the  former  of  whom  the  credit 
of  priority  belongs.  Human  eyes,  except 
those  of  albinos,  may  be  divided  into  two 
principal  classes,  the  one  containing  the  blue 
and  gray,   and  the  other  the  hazel,  green. 


EUGENICS  101 

brown  and  black  and  parti-coloured  eyes. 
The  anatomical  distinction  between  the  two 
groups  is  that  in  the  former  the  pigment 
apparently  colouring  the  iris  is  in  reality 
confined  to  a  layer  which  lies  behind  it. 
This  layer  is  seen  through  the  iris  and  appears 
clear  blue,  dullish  blue  or  gray,  according  as 
to  whether  the  substance  of  the  iris  itself  is 
Tnore  or  less  transparent. 

In  eyes  of  the  other  class  there  is,  in  addition, 
yellow  or  brown  pigment  in  front,  which, 
varying  in  quantity  and  arrangement,  gives 
rise  to  large  range  of  variety  in  the  colour 
of  eyes  which  are  not  either  blue  or 
gray. 

For  simplicity,  the  two  classes  will  be  here 
referred  to  as  'blue*  and  *  brown.* ^  The 
presence  of  the  front  pigment  layer  in  the 
eye  seems  to  depend  on  the  presence  in  the 
zygote  of  a  special  factor.  Whether  this 
factor  is  introduced  by  one  gamete  or  by 
both  the  result  is  the  same.  Thus  persons 
with  'brown*  eyes  may  be  either  duplex  or 
simplex.  The  former  produce  only  gametes 
containing   the    factor,    and    in    the    latter, 

*  Major  Hurst  gave  them  the  more  correct  names  of 
'simplex'  and  'duplex' — the  blue  having  only  a  single 
layer  of  pigment  and  the  brown  two  layers.  The  words 
'simplex  and  'duplex'  were  adopted  by  Dr  Davenport, 
but  used  by  him  in  an  entirely  different  sense — namely, 
that  in  which  they  have  been  used  in  the  present  chapter. 
Persons  nuUiplex  (according  to  Davenport)  wich  regard 
to  eye  colour  have  simplex  eyes,  according  to  Hurst; 
while  those  who  have  Hurst's  duplex  eyes  may  be  duplex 
or  simplex,  according  to  Davenport, 


102  EUGENICS 

half  will  contain  it  and  the  other  half  not. 
The  former  will  only  have  brown-eyed 
children,  whatever  may  be  the  colour  of 
the  eyes  of  their  mates.  Among  the  children 
of  the  latter,  if  mated  among  themselves, 
a  quarter  will  have  'blue'  eyes,  and  if  mated 
with  blue-eyed  persons  a  half.  *Blue'- 
eyed  people  are  nulliplex,  and  produce  no 
gametes  containing  the  factor.  The  children 
of  two  *  blue  '-eyed  parents  are  thus  invariably 
*  blue '-eyed.  The  theoretical  explanation  of 
these  proportions  given  with  reference  to  the 
description  of  the  hybridisation  experiments 
on  peas  and  mice  applies  in  exactly  the  same 
way  here  also. 

It  will,  of  course,  be  noted  that  Mendelism 
provides  a  key  to  a  small  part  only  of  the  facts 
of  inheritance  in  eye  colour.  An  explanation 
which  involves  putting  together  in  one  class 
the  large  range  of  varieties,  which  are  here 
called  'brown,'  can  hardly  be  claimed  as 
complete,  but  one  must  not  underestimate 
on  that  account  the  credit  due  to  Major 
Hurst  for  being  the  first  to  see  something 
that  was  before  the  eyes  of  all  of  us,  nor  the 
importance  of  the  result  in  demonstrating 
that  a  normal  human  character  may  be 
inherited  in  a  Mendelian  way. 

The  inheritance  of  eye  colour  may  not 
appear  to  have  a  very  direct  or  immediate 
bearing  on  Eugenics,  but  for  the  facts  just 
described  a  parallel   may   be  found  in  the 


EUGENICS  103 

inheritance  of  epilepsy  end  feeble-minded- 
ness,  concerning  the  practical  importance  of 
which  there  can  be  no  dispute.  This  will  be 
discussed  more  fully  in  a  later  chapter. 

The  majority  of  known  instances  of  the 
Mendelian  transmission  in  man  of  characters 
detrimental  to  their  possessors,  are  compara- 
tively rare  diseases  and  deformities.  A  case 
discussed  fully  by  Professor  Bateson^  is  that 
of  Brachydactyly.  Brachydactylous  persons 
have  very  short  fingers  and  toes,  which  are 
aU  two- jointed  like  thumbs,  and  not  three- 
jointed  like  normal  fingers  and  toes.  The 
thumbs  are  also  abnormally  short,  and  so 
generally  are  the  affected  persons  themselves. 
In  families  in  which  this  condition  occurs  the 
males  who  exhibit  it  may  be  as  much  as 
8j  inches  shorter  on  the  average  than  those 
who  do  not,  and  the  females  4f  inches.  Ii) 
these  families  the  descendants  of  members 
who  are  free  from  the  defect  are  invariably 
free  from  it;  but  when  those  who  show  it 
are  mated  with  unaffected  persons,  about 
one- half  of  their  offspring  are  brachydacty- 
lous, and  the  other  half  are  not.  These  facts 
are  explicable  on  the  assumption  that  the 
abnormality  is  caused  by  the  presence  of 
a  determining  factor  in  the  zygote.  This  is 
completely  absent  from  normals,  who  there- 
fore produce  only  gametes  without  it.  As 
in  the  families  described  abnormals  were 
*  Mendel,  Principles  of  Heredity.     1909. 


104  EUGENICS 

always  mated  with  normals  all  the  brachy- 
dactylous  children  bom  must  be  simplex. 
Half  their  gametes,  therefore,  would  contain 
the  factor,  and  the  other  half  be  free  from  it. 
Thus  when  they  in  turn  were  married  to  nor- 
mal persons,  half  their  offspring  would  be 
simplex,  showing  brachydactyly,  and  the 
other  half  normal. 

It  is  clear  that  when  facts  like  this  about 
particular  defects  are  known,  their  likelihood 
to  occur  in  the  offspring  of  individual  matings 
may  be  prophesied  with  an  accuracy  which 
may  amount  to  a  practical  certainty.  In 
some  cases  persons  bom  into  a  family  in 
which  a  particular  defect  is  present  could  be 
guaranteed  to  be  not  only  entirely  free  from 
it  in  themselves,  but  to  be  no  more  likely  to 
have  affected  children  than  any  scion  of  the 
soundest  stock. 

The  importance  of  the  bearing  of  Mendelian 
investigation  in  Eugenics  need  not  be  further 
insisted  on,  but  we  may  have  long  to  wait 
before  it  becomes  a  practical  guide  for  the 
everyday  use  of  persons  contemplating 
matrimony. 

SUMMARY  OF   CHAPTER 

To  illustrate  the  principles  of  Mendelism 
an  account  is  given  of  Mendel's  experiment 
of  hybridising  a  tall  with  a  dwarf  variety  of 
pea.     The  first  generation  of  hybrids    (Fj) 


EUGENICS  105 

are  all  tall,  but  when  they  are  self-fertilised 
a  quarter  of  the  members  of  the  next  genera- 
tion (Fg)  thus  produced  are  dwarfs. 

The  tall  plants  can  be  shown  by  breeding 
from  them  to  be  of  two  kinds,  one  producing 
on  self-fertilisation  only  plants  like  them- 
selves, and  the  other  behaving  like  the  plants 
of  the  Fj  generation.  A  quarter  of  the  plants 
of  the  Fj  generation  belong  to  the  former  kind, 
and  one-half  to  the  latter.  The  explanation 
given  to  account  for  this  is  that  of  the  two 
gametes  which  are  brought  together  to  form 
the  zygote  in  the  original  cross  one  contains 
a  factor,  which  when  present  in  the  zygote 
determines  that  it  shall  develop  into  a  tall 
plant,  and  the  other  does  not.  The  members 
of  the  Fi  generation  containing  the  factor, 
though  only  introduced  by  one  parent,  are 
tall  themselves,  but  produce  gametes  of 
which  only  one-half  contain  the  factor.  If 
self-fertilisation  then  occurs,  or  if  the  flowers 
are  fertilised  from  plants  of  a  similar  nature, 
each  gamete  which  contains  the  factor  is 
just  as  likely  to  be  fertilised  by  one  of  the 
same  kind  as  one  of  a  different  kind.  Conse- 
quently when  a  large  number  are  fertilised, 
half  will  be  fertilised  by  other  gametes  con- 
taining the  factor  and  half  by  gametes  which 
do  not  contain  it,  and  the  same  applies  if 
one  considers  the  gametes  which  do  not 
contain  it.  Suppose  T  to  represent  gametes 
containing  the  factor  and  t  those  which  do 


106  EUGENICS 

not  contain  it,  then  three  different  kinds  of 
zygotes  will  be  formed.  TT,  Tt,  and  tt,  and, 
according  to  the  laws  of  probability,  in  every 
100  zygotes  of  the  F2  generation  one  may 
expect  25  TT,  50  Ti,  and  25  tt.  TT  and  Tt 
will  be  iall  plants  and  tt  dwarfs,  TT  and  tt 
will  breed  true  to  the  character  shown,  pro- 
ducing each  gametes  all  of  one  kind;  but  Tt 
being  of  the  same  gametic  constitution  as  the 
plants  of  the  Fj  generation  will  behave  like 
them  and  produce  one-half  T  gametes  and 
one-half  t. 

It  is  then  shown  what  kind  of  hybrids  will 
be  produced,  and  in  what  proportions,  if 
the  varieties  crossed  differ  in  two  unit  char- 
acters instead  of  in  one;  and  to  illustrate 
what  may  occur  when  a  character  really 
depends  on  the  presence  of  two  or  more 
factors,  Dr  Raymond  Pearl's  investiga- 
tions into  the  fecundity  of  fowls  are  con- 
sidered. 

The  inheritance  of  human  eye  colour  is 
taken  as  an  instance  of  the  transmission  of 
normal  human  characters  according  to 
Mendel's  Laws,  the  explanation  given  being 
that  the  presence  of  an  additional  factor  in 
the  zygote  converts  blue  or  gray  eyes  into 
hazel  or  brown,  in  the  same  way  that  a  pea 
plant  if  it  has  the  right  factor  present  is 
tall;  but  when  the  factor  is  absent,  a  dwarf. 
Brachydactyly  is  taken  as  an  instance  of 
a  human  abnormality,    conditioned    by  the 


EUGENICS  107 

presence  of  a  determining  factor  in  the 
zygote,  and  inherited  in  the  same  way.  The 
special  importance  of  Mendelism  to  Eugenics 
is  then  pointed  out. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE    STATISTICAL   STUDY  OF 
INHERITANCE 

While  Mendelian  investigation,  or  to  speak 
rather  more  broadly,  the  science  of  Genetics, 
which  has  been  evolved  out  of  it,  is,  and 
promises  to  remain,  the  most  fertile  method 
of  pursuing  the  study  of  inheritance,  it  is 
not  the  only  one.  Though  its  advance  during 
the  last  twelve  years  has  been  one  of  sur- 
prising rapidity,  it  has  up  to  the  present 
Jeft  many  fields  unworked,  and  even  if  it 
may  be  expected  to  increase  a  hundredfold 
the  knowledge  which  we  owe  to  it,  there  is 
as  yet  no  indication  that  its  methods  of 
analysis  will  ever  be  able  to  touch  some  of 
the  problems  of  inheritance.  They  may  fail 
for  two  reasons.  First,  there  may  be  charac- 
ters which  are  not  inherited  according  to 
Mendel's  laws;  and,  secondly,  the  somatic 
character  may  be  determined  by  so  large  a 
number  of  gametic  factors  that,  although 
each  factor  is  transmitted  unchanged  in  all 
its    purity,    the    somatic    character    might 


108  EUGENICS 

appear  to  be  completely  blended  or  modified 
in  many  other  ways  by  inheritance.  It  is 
not  in  any  way  in  disagreement  with  MendeFs 
theory  to  suppose  that  a  character  may 
depend  for  its  full  development  on  the 
presence  of  a  hundred  factors ;  but  if  an  indi- 
vidual bearing  such  a  character  were  crossed 
with  another  which  did  not  contain  it,  the 
number  of  hybrids  with  different  gametic 
constitutions  which  might  arise  in  the  F, 
generation  is  so  vast  that  their  identification 
would  be  altogether  outside  the  range  of 
practical  Genetics,  at  any  rate  at  the  present 
day;  and  it  is  only  by  the  identification  of 
the  different  hybrids  produced  that  the 
number  and  nature  of  the  factors  can  be 
arrived  at. 

It  is  in  such  cases  as  this  that  statistical 
methods  may  be  profitably  applied  to  the 
study  of  inheritance.  The  aims  of  the  statis- 
tician in  approaching  the  problem  are  far 
less  ambitious  than  those  of  the  Geneticist.* 
The  former  makes  no  endeavour  to  arrive  at 
an  understanding  of  the  physiology  of 
heredity — ^that  is  to  say  the  workings  of  its 
vital  mechanism;  he  tries  only  to  arrive  at 
a  simple  statement  of  its  effects  when 
observed  in  a  large  number  of  individuals. 
He  attempts  to  measure  the  average  resem- 
blance shown  between  parents  and  children, 

^  Geneticist  =  a  person  engaged  in  the  advancement 
of  the  science  of  Genetics. 


EUGENICS  109 

with  regard  to  the  degree  of  development  of 
the  somatic  characters  studied.  This  measure 
is  obtained  by  the  calculation  of  correlation 
coefficientSy  a  method  which  owes  its  origin 
to  Sir  Francis  Galton's  study  of  the  inheri- 
tance of  human  stature,  but  is  now  applied 
to  many  other  purposes.  Human  stature  is 
a  character  which,  probably  on  account  of 
its  dependence  on  a  large  number  of  gametic 
factors,  and  possibly  owing  to  its  suscepti- 
bility to  environmental  influences,  has  not 
hitherto  been  shown  to  be  transmitted  accord- 
ing to  Mendel's  laws.  Thus  for  historical 
and  practical  reasons  Galton's  study  of  its 
inheritance  may  conveniently  be  taken  as 
an  example  of  the  statistical  method. 

The  material  which  he^  used  consisted  of 
records  of  the  heights  of  928  adults  grouped 
in  205  fraternities,  together  with  the  heights 
of  their  parents.  In  order  to  be  able  to  group 
men  and  women  together  in  the  same  table, 
it  was  necessary  to  transmute  the  stature 
of  the  women  in  order  to  make  them  com- 
parable with  those  of  men.  This  was  done 
by  adding  to  each  observed  female  stature 
one  inch  for  every  foot  of  the  actual  measure- 
ment; for  example,  when  a  woman's  real 
height  was  five  feet,  in  order  to  make  it 
equivalent  to  a  man's  height,  Galton  added 
five  inches,  thus  converting  it  into  five  feet 
five  inches,  before  entering  it  in  his  tables. 

*  Vide  Galton,  Natural  Inheritance. 


110  EUGENICS 

Further,  in  order  to  take  both  parents  into 
account,  when  studying  the  relation  of  their 
stature  to  that  of  the  children,  he  did  not 
use  the  heights  of  the  fathers  separately  to 
that  of  the  mothers,  but  after  transmuting 
the  height  of  the  mother  he  took  an  average 
between  that  and  the  father's  height.  This 
average  he  called  the  stature  of  the  Mid- 
parent, 

After  these  preliminaries  were  completed, 
a  double  classification  was  made :  the 
children  were  first  arranged  in  fourteen 
classes,  according  to  stature,  and  then  each 
class  was  divided  again  into  groups  according 
lo  the  stature  of  the  mid-parent.  The  results 
thus  obtained  were  written  in  tabular  form.* 
{Vide  Table  I.)  The  table  may  be  read  either 
as  a  series  of  vertical  columns  or  of  horizontal 
rows.  Each  column  is  headed  by  a  number 
which  signifies  the  central  height  in  inches 
of  the  class  of  *  children '  contained  in  it.  Thus 
the  third  column  from  the  left  is  headed 
63*2.  As  the  total  range  of  each  class  is 
one  inch,  this  means  that  all  the  *  children '  in 
the  class  lie  within  half  an  inch  above  or 
half  an  inch  below  63*2  inches. 

Corresponding  numbers  are  placed  at  the 
left-hand  end  of  each  row.  Thus  the  num- 
ber 72*5  is  placed  at  the  end  of  the  second 
row.  This  signifies  that  all  the  'children* 
entered  in  the  row  have  mid-parents  whose 

*  This  ionn  of  table  is  called  a  Correlation  Table. 


b"C0COCOC0COCOCOC0 

Total 

Number 

of 

Adult 
Children. 

^©eooocoorHoocoec 

rS-^JICOOOr-li-lt^COIN 
i-i  N  N 

PH 

00 
(N 

0» 

00 

H 

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M 
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M 

< 
o 

00 
H 

k 
o 

1" 

•"J"  (N  CO  »0 

pH 

CO  (N  (N  W  -"Ji  W 

1> 

(N 

pH 

o 

l-H 

N  >*  I*  O  «  i-i        e» 

(M    I-l    IH 

3 

o 

6 

PHO'<J"W5rHOJ'<*lU5 
^   rH   (N   (N   r-l 

S 

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c««5ooeoooooeot-oi 

rl  CO  ■«?  CO  i-H 

r-l 

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00 
CO 

00                         rl  N  eO  (N   rH 

fH 

pH 

CO 

do 

CO 

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fe 

■<teoi>i-Hooi>iH»o 

<N   CO   CO   rH   i-l 

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p-l 

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C4 

to 

eOpHt-wicDt-i-Hio 

r-l   N    CO   i-H    p^ 

01 

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CD 

rHrH'<JiCO«5fflt-i-l 

pH 

^ 

co 

CO 

CO  f-t  •<Jl  MS  M5  '^ 
i-H   pH  rl 

"* 

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00 

co 

PH    PH    t»    »0    CO    «    •* 

e< 

01 

CO 

CO    ■ 
CO 

CO 

09  CO         iH 

fc- 

pH 

Ui 

Heights  of 

THE 
MiD-PARKNTS 

IN  Inches. 

(NNiHOOOOt-ODMS^ 
t>t>b*b*CDCD<0C0CO(O 

1 

us 
1 

I 

'-g 

112  EUGENICS 

stature  falls  within  half  an  inch  of  72*5 
inches. 

Let  us  consider  the  entries  of  the  fifth 
column  in  detail.  It  is  headed  65*2  inches, 
and  near  its  foot  may  be  found  the  figure  48, 
which  represents  the  total  number  of  children 
recorded  in  the  colunm.  By  looking  down  it 
one  may  see  that  one  of  the  48  falls  in  the 
71*5  inch  row,  one  in  the  70*5  inch,  four  in  the 
69*5  inch,  16  in  the  68*5  inch,  and  so  on. 
The  meaning  of  the  column,  therefore,  is, 
that  when  the  whole  number  (928)  of  adult 
children  were  divided  into  one-inch  classes 
according  to  stature,  48  fell  within  the  class 
centred  at  5  ft.  5*2  inches,  and  that  when 
these  were  sub-divided  according  to  the  stature 
of  the  mid-parents,  one  was  found  to  have 
a  mid-parent  in  the  group  centred  at  5  ft. 
Hi  inches,  another  in  the  next  lowest  group, 
four  more  in  the  group  centred  at  5  ft.  9  i 
inches,  16  in  the  group  below  that,  and 
15,  2,  7,  1,  1  in  the  succeeding  five  sub- 
divisions. 

The  other  columns  record  corresponding 
facts  about  the  remaining  880  'children,* 
which  can  be  easily  understood  when  once 
the  principle  on  which  the  table  is  con- 
structed has  been  mastered. 

The  horizontal  rows  may  be  read  off  in 
exactly  the  same  manner,  they  only  differ 
from  the  columns  in  that  the  primary  classi- 
fication is  according  to   the  height  of   the 


EUGENICS  118 

mid-parents,  while  the  secondary  classi- 
fication is  based  on  the  stature  of  the  children. 

In  the  lowest  row  and  in  the  extreme  right- 
hand  column  of  the  table  are  entries  of  a 
different  character,  described  as  'medians.* 
Thus  the  colunm  headed  63*2  inches  has  at 
its  foot  the  number  66*3,  and  the  row  which 
has  in  its  left-hand  division  the  figure  72*5 
has  at  its  right  the  number  72*2.  It  is  on 
these  figures  that  attention  should  now  be 
focussed,  because  they  provided  the  clue 
which  led  to  the  invention  of  the  statistical 
methods  for  measiuing  correlation. 

The  figure  66*3  at  the  foot  of  the  column 
headed  63*2  means  that  the  median*  stature 
of  the  mid-parents  whose  children  fell  in  the 
5  ft.  8'2  inch  group  column  was  5  ft.  6*3 
inches;  in  the  fourth  column,  in  which  were 
entered  children  an  inch  taller,  the  median 
stature  of  the  mid-parent  rises  to  5  ft.  7*8 
inches,  and  it  goes  on  rising  on  the  whole, 
though  rather  imsteadily  as  the  stature  of 
the  children  rises.  It  will,  however,  be 
noted  that  the  rise  in  the  on  3  case  is  not  so 
rapid  as  in  the  other. 

The  figure  72-2  at  the  right-hand  end  of 
the  second  row  indicates  that  the  median 
height  of  all  the  children  whose  mid-parents 
were  in  the  6  ft.  0*5  inch  group  was  6  ft.  0*2 
inches.     In  the  next  lowest  group   it  was 

^  In  considering  human  stature  the  median  may  be 
taken  as  equivalent  to  the  average. 


114  EUGENICS 

5  ft.  9*9,  and  below  that  again  5  ft.  9*5,  and 
so  on,  descending  steadily,  but  not  quite 
regularly  to  the  lowest  but  one,  where  it  is 
entered  as  65*8  inches,  or  5  ft.  5*8  inches. 
The  medians  for  the  outside  columns  and 
rows  were  not  calculated  because,  owing  to 
the  small  number  of  the  entries  in  them, 
they  would  not  give  reliable  enough  results. 

It  is  very  difficult  to  grasp  the  significance 
of  a  table  containing  many  figures,  conse- 
quently statisticians  almost  invariably  try 
to  represent  such  tables  by  appropriate 
diagrams.  Figure  2  is  a  diagram  drawn  to 
represent  the  essential  facts  which  may  be 
learnt  from  Table  I.  In  it  each  column  of 
the  table  is  represented  by  a  vertical  line, 
and  each  row  by  a  horizontal  line;  the  dis- 
tance between  each  vertical  line  and  the  lines 
on  either  side  of  it  is  the  same  throughout, 
and  may  be  taken  to  represent  one  inch  in 
stature,  because  the  centres  of  the  classes 
and  groups  into  which  the  'children'  were 
divided  fell  one  inch  apart.  The  horizontal 
lines  have  the  same  spacing  as  the  vertical 
ones.  As  the  vertical  and  horizontal  lines 
cross  one  another  at  right  angles,  it  follows 
that  the  former  divide  each  of  the  latter  up 
into  equal  parts,  thus  converting  it  into  a 
scale  of  inches,  and  in  the  same  way  the  ver- 
tical lines  are  each  divided  by  the  horizontal 
lines  into  similar  scales.  This  enables  one 
to  mark  by  a  dot  in  the  centre  of  a  small 


EUGENICS  115 

circle  on  the  vertical  lines  the  median  height 
of  the  mid-parent  associated  with  children  of 
each  particular  stature.  In  the  same  way 
the  middle  points  of  small  crosses  are  used  on 
the  horizontal  lines  to  mark  the  median  stature 
of  the  children  associated  with  mid -parents  of 
each  group.  A  diagram  of  a  kind  essentially 
similar  to  this  was  constructed  by  Galton, 
and  it  enabled  him  to  note  that  the  circles 
fell  roughly  on  a  straight  line  and  so  did  the 
crosses;  so  it  occurred  to  him  that  the  slope 
of  these  lines  might  be  used  as  measure  of 
the  degree  of  interdependence  between  the 
statures  of  the  mid-parents  and  the  statures 
of  the  children. 

If  there  were  no  connection  whatever 
between  the  two,  there  would  be  no  reason 
why  the  height  of  the  mid-parents  of  all  those 
children  who  fell  in  the  5  ft.  4*2  class  should 
be  a  little  higher  than  that  of  those  in  the 
5  ft.  3*2  class,  and  a  little  lower  than  that 
of  those  in  the  5  ft.  5-2  class.  Consequently 
the  median  mid-parental  heights  would  tend 
to  be  the  same  in  each  case,  and  if  they  were 
represented  as  in  Figure  2  the  little  circles 
would  lie  clustered  about  the  horizontal 
line  EF,  running  at  the  level  at  which  the 
median  height  of  all  the  mid-parents  taken 
together  might  be  recorded  on  the  scale. 
On  the  other  hand,  if  an  increase  or  decrease 
of  any  particular  amount  in  the  height  of 
the  children  was  associated  with  an  increase 


116  EUGENICS 

or  decrease  of  an  identical  amount  in  the 
median  stature  of  the  mid-parents,  the  circles 
would  lie  in  a  line  which  sloped  upwards 
towards  the  right  hand  of  the  figure  at  an 
angle  of  45  degrees,  which  is  the  angle  made 
with  the  sides  of  a  square  by  a  line  joining 
two  of  the  corners. 

The  slope  of  a  line  may  be  expressed  in 
many  different  ways.  For  the  present  pur- 
pose it  is  convenient  to  use  a  trigonometrical 
ratio — ^namely,  the  tangent  of  the  angle 
which  it  makes  with  the  horizontal.  This  may 
be  made  clearer  by  reference  to  Figure  2. 
Let  AB  be  the  straight  line  which  gives  the 
best  indication  of  the  way  in  which  the  little 
circles  are  distributed,  and  let  the  horizontal 
line  EF  represent  the  position  in  which  AB 
would  be  if  there  were  no  connection  what- 
ever between  stature  of  the  mid-parents  and 
the  stature  of  the  children.  Let  AB  cut 
EF  at  M.  Take  any  point  N  on  AB,  and  from 
it  draw  a  line  perpendicular  to  EF  and  meeting 
EF  at  O.  Then  the  angle  NMO  is  the  angle 
which  AB  makes  with  the  horizontal,  and 
the  length  of  the  line  NO,  divided  by  the 
length  of  the  line  MO,  is  the  tangent  of  the 
angle  NMO.  It  makes  no  difference  where 
on  AB  the  point  N  is  taken,  for  the  relation 
which  NO  bears  to  MO  is  always  the  same 
if  the  angle  itself  remains  the  same. 

If  instead  of  considering  the  diagram  we 
consider  the  facts  which  it  represents,   the 


EUGENICS  117 

last  statement  may  be  interpreted  as  fol- 
lows : — If  a  group  of  children  be  taken  of 
a  stature  differing  from  the  average  stature  of 
all  the  children  by  any  definite  amoimt,  a;, 
large  or  small,  then  the  average  height  of 
their  mid-parents  will  differ  from  the  average 
height  of  all  the  mid-parents  taken  together 
by  an  amoimt  which  bears  a  constant  rela- 
tion to  X.  In  Figure  2  the  line  NO  is  one- 
third  of  the  length  of  the  line  MO,  and  this 
expresses  the  fact  that  if  one  considers  a 
group  of  children  who  are  all  three  inches 
taller  than  the  general  average,  the  average 
height  of  their  mid-parents  will  be  one  inch 
greater  than  the  general  average  height  of 
mid-parents,  and  if  the  jftlial  deviation  be 
1  inch  or  1^  inches,  or  any  other  amoimt,  the 
associated  mid-parental  deviation  will  be  one- 
third  of  it.  This  fraction,  which,  as  has 
been  explained,  represents  the  slope  of  the 
line  AB,  Galton  called  the  Mid-parental 
Regression.  He  used  the  word  regression  to 
signify  that  the  mid-parents  of  children  whc 
are  exceptional  in  a  particular  degree  are  prob- 
ably also  exceptional  but  to  a  lesser  degree; 
in  fact,  they  may  be  said  to  have  regressed 
or  moved  backwards  towards  the  average. 

Let  us  now  consider  the  other  sloping  line 
on  the  diagram,  CD,  which  represents  most 
nearly  the  straight  line  along  which  the  little 
crosses  tend  to  lie.  Each  little  cross  repre- 
sents the  median  height  of  the  children  of 


118  EUGENICS 

the  mid-parents  belonging  to  a  particular 
stature  group.  If  the  height  of  the  children 
in  no  way  depended  on  the  height  of  their 
mid-parents,  the  children  of  any  particular 
group  of  mid-parents  would  probably  have  just 
the  average  tallness,  neither  more  nor  less. 
If  this  state  of  affairs  were  represented  on  the 
figure,  it  would  be  found  that  the  little  crosses 
would  lie  along  the  vertical  line,  GH.  The 
degree  of  interdependence  between  the 
parental  and  filial  statures  is  thus  repre- 
sented in  this  case  by  the  angle  which  the 
line  CD  makes  with  GH.  The  tangent  of 
this  angle  is  the  length  of  the  line  SR,  divided 
by  the  length  of  the  line  SM.  The  fraction 
thus  obtained  Galton  called  the  'Filial 
Regression';  in  the  present  case  it  is  §. 
Interpreting  again  in  terms  of  the  facts 
represented,  we  may  say  that  when  the  mid- 
parental  deviation  from  the  average  is  any 
given  amount  x,  the  associated  filial  devia- 
tion will  be  two-thirds  of  that  amount. 

The  two  lines  AB  and  CD  are  called  regres- 
sion lines.  It  is  now  necessary  to  consider 
how  far  the  tangents  of  the  angles  which 
^hey  make  in  the  one  case  with  the  vertical 
end  in  the  other  with  the  horizontal  form 
a  satisfactory  measure  of  the  degree  of  inter- 
dependence, or,  as  we  will  say  henceforth, 
of  correlation  between  the  filial  stature  and 
the  mid-parental  stature.  It  seems  fairly 
obvious  that  the  former  must  be  correlated 


EUGENICS  119 

■with  the  latter  to  exactly  the  same  extent 
as  the  latter  is  correlated  with  the  former. 
Yet  we  find  from  the  figure  that  the  'Filial 
Regression'  is  two-thirds,  while  the  'Mid- 
parental  Regression'  is  one-third.  Why  is 
there  this  discrepancy,  and  how  can  it  be 
avoided?  The  reason  for  it  is  not  far  to 
seek — it  lies  in  the  manner  of  construction 
of  that  artificial  monster  the  mid-parent. 
He  is  not  one  person  but  an  average  of  two, 
consequently  he  is  far  less  variable  than  one 
person.  That  this  must  be  so,  any  one  who 
thinks  of  the  matter  for  a  moment  will  con- 
clude; but  it  takes  some  mathematical 
reasoning  to  determine  how  much  less  the 
variability  should  be.  Its  results,  but  not 
the  reasoning  itself  will  be  given  here;  but 
beforehand,  a  word  or  two  must  be  said  about 
the  way  in  which  variability  may  be  measured. 
Let  us  suppose  that  we  want  to  measure 
the  variability  in  stature  of  a  population, 
and  have  for  that  purpose  taken  from  it  at 
random  a  sample  of  a  thousand  individuals. 
At  first  sight  it  might  appear  that  the  simplest 
thing  to  do  would  be  to  measure  the  differ- 
ence in  height  between  the  shortest  and  the 
tallest,  but  this  would  be  misleading,  because 
the  size  of  the  sample  would  infiuence  the 
result.  A  sample  100,000  strong  would  prob- 
ably contain  a  very  much  taller  man  and 
also  a  very  much  shorter  man  than  one  of 
only  1000  individuals.     A  better  way  is  to 


120  EUGENICS 

pick  out  two  individuals,  one  so  short  that 
only  a  quarter  of  the  sample  are  shorter  than 
he,  and  the  other  so  tall  that  only  a  quarter 
are  taller.  These  two  men  may  be  called  the 
quartiles — half  the  sample  lies  between  them 
in  stature  and  the  other  half  outside  them. 
They  will  differ  from  one  another  in  stature 
by  a  certain  number  of  inches,  which  is  not 
made  larger  by  increasing  the  size  of  the 
sample  or  smaller  by  decreasing  it.  Half- 
way between  them  lies  the  median,  than 
whom  half  the  sample  are  taller  and  half 
shorter.  The  two  quartiles  diner  from  the 
median  by  approximately  the  same  amount, 
which  is  called  the  qiuirtile  deviation, 

Galton  used  the  quartile  deviation  as  a 
measure  of  variability,  and  found  that  in  the 
general  population  it  is  1*7  inches,  half  the 
population  differing  from  the  median  by 
less  than  1*7  inches,  and  the  other  half  by 
more  than  that  amount.  If,  instead  of 
measuring  the  variability  of  individuals, 
averages  are  taken  of  pairs  selected  at  random, 
and  the  variability  of  these  averages  is 
measured,  then  according  to  mathematical 
theory  their  quartile  deviation  would  be  that 
of  the  separate  members  of  the  general  popu- 
lation divided  by  the  square  root  of  two. 
If  the  quartile  deviation  in  stature  of  indi- 
viduals is  1*7,  then  that  of  pairs  would  be, 
according  to  this  theory,  1*7  divided  by 
/v/2,  or  1*21  inches.     The  quartile  deviation 


EUGENICS  121 

of  mid-parents  is  actually  1'19,  a  result  which 
agrees  very  well  with  the  theory. 

Since  mid-parents  are  to  that  extent  less 
variable  than  their  adult  children,  it  would 
not  be  incorrect  to  say  that  a  deviation  from 
the  average  on  their  part  of  any  specified 
amount  is  equivalent  to  a  deviation  on  the 
part  of  the  children  of  the  same  amount 
multiplied  by  the  square  root  of  two.  There- 
fore, if  the  slope  of  the  regression  lines  AB 
and  CD  in  Figure  2  is  to  be  used  as  a  true 
measure  of  correlation,  the  figure  should  be 
redrawn  with  the  scale  corrected  accord- 
ingly. Each  division  on  the  horizontal  scale 
represents  one  inch  of  children's  stature, 
each  division  on  the  vertical  scale  represents 
one  inch  of  mid-parents'  stature.  As  an  inch  of 
mid  parents*  stature  is  equivalent  to  1  X  sj^ 
inches  (  =1'45  inches)  of  children's  stature, 
the  divisions  on  the  vertical  scale  should  be 
1*45  times  as  long  as  those  on  the  horizontal 
scale. 

Let  us  see  what  the  effect  of  such  an 
alteration  would  be  on  the  tangents  of  the 
angles  SRM  and  NMO. 

SR 
The  tangent  of   the  angle  SRM=:^^=f. 

On  the  corrected  figure  SM  would  be  1-45 
(x/2)  times  as  long,  but  SR  would  be   the 

SR 
same  length.     Therefore  -—  would  be  equal 

SM  , 


1^2  EUGENICS 

2 

to  ,  which,  divided  out,  is  equal    to 

8X1-45  ^ 

NO 

•483.     The  tangent  of  the  angle  NMO  =  ^r|^ 

c=i.  On  the  corrected  figure  NO  would  be 
increased  1*45  times  in  length,  but  MO  would 
remain  the  same;    the  value  of  the  tangent 

1*45 

would  therefore  be or    '483,    which    is 

3 

the  same  as  that  of  the  angle  SRM. 

Thus  we  see  that  if  the  regression  diagram 
is  constructed  in  such  a  way  that  the  divisions 
on  the  two  scales  which  represent  inches  of 
stature  are  proportional  in  absolute  length 
to  the  quartile  deviations  of  mid-parents  and 
children,  the  filial  regression  line  will  make  the 
same  angle  with  the  vertical  that  the  mid- 
parental  regression  does  with  the  horizontal. 
The  tangent  of  this  angle  can  thus  be  used 
as  a  measure  of  correlation,  and  is  practically 
identical  with  the  earliest  form  of  correlation 
coefficient. 

If  the  correlation  between  the  mid-parents' 
and  children's  statures  were  absolutely  com- 
plete, then  a  deviation  of  any  given  amount  in 
the  stature  of  the  one  would  invariably  be 
associated  with  an  equivalent  deviation  in 
the  stature  of  the  other,  if  the  word  equivalent 
is  taken  to  mean  that  the  deviation  in  the 
one  would  bear  the  same  relation  to  the 
deviation  in  the  other,  as  is  borne  by  their 


EUGENICS  128 

respective  quartile  deviations.  Under  these 
circumstances  the  two  regression  lines  would 
coincide  in  position,  forming  equal  angles 
(of  45  degrees)  with  the  vertical  and  hori- 
zontal. The  tangent  of  the  angles  would 
therefore  be  in  each  case  equal  to  unity,  and 
the  correlation  coefficient  would  consequently 
be  one.  If  there  were  no  correlation,  the  one 
regression  line  would  be  horizontal  and  the 
other  vertical.  The  lines  NO  and  SR  in 
Figure  2  would  thus  be  reduced  to  points 
which  have  no  length,  and  the  tangents  of 
the  angles  SMR  and  NMO  would  conse- 
quently be  nothing.  The  correlation  co- 
efficient can  thus  take  any  value  between 
nothing  and  unity. 

Although  it  would  be  possible  and  theo- 
retically correct  to  determine  its  value 
graphically  by  drawing  a  diagram  of  the  kind 
described  above,  in  practice  it  is  formed 
directly  from  numerical  tables,  like  Table  I., 
by  arithmetical  calculations,  which,  though 
they  are  themselves  of  an  easy  and  straight- 
forward kind,  are  based  on  theories  involving 
advanced  mathematics.  Coefficients  of  the 
kind  described  above  can  be  calculated  to 
determine  the  degree  of  the  correlation  be- 
tween any  two  associated  variables  which 
can  themselves  be  measured,  as,  for  instance, 
the  height  of  man  and  the  length  of  his  legs. 
Professor  Karl  Pearson  has  devised  addi- 
tional methods  which  can  be  applied  where 


124  EUGENICS 

no  true  measurement  of  the  variable  charac- 
ters, but  only  rough  grading  or  classification, 
is  possible.  They  all  agree  in  arriving  at  a 
number  which  is  equal  to  unity  when  the 
correlation  is  complete,  and  to  nothing  when 
there  is  no  correlation,  and  in  representing 
different  degrees  of  correlation  by  fractions 
which  lie  between  nothing  and  imity. 

Though  all  these  methods  can  be,  and 
have  been,  used  for  the  study  of  heredity, 
so  far  from  their  scope  being  limited  to  this 
study,  it  is  probable  that  they  may  be  applied 
more  usefully  for  other  purposes,  such  as  the 
investigation  of  many  of  the  problems  found 
elsewhere  in  Eugenics.  It  is,  therefore, 
important  that  the  reader  should  grasp  as 
firmly  as  possible  what  the  correlation  co- 
efficient means. 

Galton*s  statistical  investigations  into 
heredity  gave  rise  to  many  more,  which  have 
been  carried  on  almost  entirely  by  Professor 
Karl  Pearson  and  his  pupils.  In  these  sub- 
sequent researches  it  has  been  found  most 
convenient  to  keep  the  two  parents  and  four 
grandparents  separate,  and  not  to  combine 
them  into  mid-parents  and  mid-grandparents. 
Correlation  coefficients  for  a  variety  of 
characters  have  been  calculated  between 
fathers  and  sons,  fathers  and  daughters, 
mothers  and  sons,  mothers  and  daughters, 
grandfathers  and  grandsons,  grandmothers 
and  grandsons,  and  so  on,  and  also  between 


EUGENICS  125 

brother  and  brother,  cousin  and  cousin,  and 
other  pairs  of  relations  of  different  degrees. 
Not  only  man  but  many  other  animals  have 
been  studied  in  this  way,  and  certain  general 
deductions  have  been  drawn  from  the  results. 
The  correlation  between  the  degree  of 
development  of  a  character  in  either  parent 
and  the  d^ree  of  development  of  the  same 
character  in  the  children,  either  sons  or 
daughters,  taken  separately,  lies  often  be- 
tween '42  and  '52,  though  higher  and  lower 
values  have  been  obtained.  As  an  example 
of  this  rule,  may  be  given  the  following 
results,  obtained  by  Professor  Pearson  and 
Miss  A.  Lee: — ^ 

COEFFICIENTS  OF  CORRELATION  BETWEEN 
PARENTS  AND  OFFSPRING. 


^,                                            Father 

Character                       and 

son 

Father 

and 

daughter. 

Mother 
and 
son. 

Mother 

and 
daughter. 

Stature   .         .         .       614 

•510 

•494 

•507 

Span  (distance  between 
tips  of  fingers  when 
arms  are  extended).      '454 

Length  of  forearm    .      '421 

•454 
•422 

•457 
•406 

•452 
•421 

The  correlation  between  pairs  of  brother 
and  brother,  sister  and  sister,  and  brother  and 
sister,  is  usually  a  trifle  higher  than  the 
corresponding  relation  between  parents  and 
children. 

The  correlation  between  grandparents  and 
children  is  often  about  '3. 

^Biometrika,  Vol.  II.,  p.  278. 


126  EUGENICS 

The  coefficients  may  be  taken  as  measures 
of  average  resemblance  between  different 
pairs  of  relatives,  and  although  they  are 
sometimes  referred  to  as  'coefficients  of 
heredity,'  it  is  incorrect  to  do  so  except  in 
cases  where  it  may  be  supposed  that  the 
whole  resemblance  is  in  reality  due  to  heredity, 
and  none  to  the  fact  that  the  environmental 
conditions  have  been  more  nearly  the  same 
for  members  of  the  same  family  than  for 
members  of  different  families.  For  such 
characters  as  stature,  span  and  length  of 
forearm,  if  the  families  investigated  came 
from  approximately  the  same  social  class, 
the  degree  of  resemblance  due  to  similar 
environment  cannot  be  very  large,  so  prac- 
tically the  whole  resemblance  may  be  reason- 
ably attributed  to  heredity. 

Under  favourable  conditions  the  results 
obtained  by  these  statistical  studies  could  be 
made  of  use  to  edict  the  probable  off- 
spring from  marriages  of  a  particular  kind. 
The  mass  results  to  be  expected  from  a  large 
number  could  by  their  aid  be  predicted  with 
considerable  accuracy,  but  in  individual  cases 
they  could  never  do  more  than  indicate  a 
probability.  The  accuracy  of  the  ediction 
would  depend  on  conditions  here  to  be  stated, 
in  a  hypothetical  concrete  case,  for  which 
stature  can  still  be  conveniently  used. 

Suppose  a  man  A  marries  a  woman  B, 
what  will  be  the  probable  adult  stature  of 


EUGENICS  127 

any  sons  they  may  have?  If  A's  height  is 
known,  but  B's  is  not  known,  some  clue  to 
the  probable  height  of  the  sons  would  be 
afforded  by  the  knowledge  that  the  correla- 
tion in  stature  between  father  and  son  was 
•514;  but  if  B's  height  were  also  ascertained, 
and  the  correlation  between  mothers  and  sons 
and  husbands  and  wives  were  known,  one 
could  speak  with  much  greater  certainty. 
If  records  were  at  hand  of  the  respective 
statures  of  A's  father  and  mother  and  B's 
father  and  mother,  and  the  grand-parental 
coefficients  had  been  calculated,  the  prophecy 
could  be  made  much  more  precise,  and  the 
precision  would  be  increased  if  knowledge  of 
the  same  kind  concerning  the  remoter  an- 
cestry and  collaterals  was  available.^ 

It  will  be  seen  from  this  statement  that  the 
character  of  the  ancestry,  as  well  as  the 
character  of  the  parents,  influences  the  nature 
of  the  offspring;  a  tall  man's  sons  are  likely 
to  be  taller  if  his  father  and  mother  are  also 
tall,  and  taller  still  if  the  peculiarity  was 
present  in  his  grandparents. 

How  does  this  agree  with  the  following 
fact  mentioned  in  the  description  of  Major 
Hurst's  discoveries  about  the  inheritance  of 
eye  colour  in  man?  Two  blue-eyed  people 
have  all  blue-eyed  children,  no  matter  how 

_  *  Professor  Karl  Pearson's  theory  of  multiple  correla- 
tion enables  one  to  combine  individual  results  in  this 
manner. 


128  EUGENICS 

many  among  their  parents  or  grandparents 
had  brown  eyes;  so  in  this  case  the  eye 
colour  of  the  ancestry  appears  to  be  without 
any  influence  on  that  of  the  children. 

Speaking  more  generally,  it  may  be  said 
to  follow  from  the  Mendelian  theory  that 
when  the  gametic  constitution  of  the  parents 
are  known,  a  knowledge  of  their  ancestry 
will  not  give  any  additional  clue  to  the 
probable  nature  of  the  children.  Many 
writers  have  seen  in  this  apparent  conflict 
between  the  statistical  and  Mendelian  point 
of  view  evidence  of  an  irreconcilable  differ- 
ence between  them.  There  is,  however,  no 
necessary  antagonism  here.  In  the  cases 
such  as  that  of  stature,  a  knowledge  of  the 
stature  of  the  parents  gives  no  indication  of 
their  gametic  constitution,  and  the  additional 
information  concerning  the  grandparents  and 
other  relatives  is  useful  just  because  it  gives 
some  sort  of  clue  to  it.  In  cases  of  obvious 
Mendelian  inheritance  where  the  gametic 
constitution  is  known,  the  ancestry  may 
safely  be  neglected;  but  it  is  often  the  charac- 
ters of  the  ancestors  which  provide  part  of 
the  data  for  determining  what  the  gametic 
constitution  actually  is. 

We  have  up  to  this  point  been  attempting 
to  show  how  by  the  calculation  of  correlation 
coefficients  it  is  possible  to  obtain  some  sort 
of  measure  of  the  intensity  of  inheritance, 
which  may  be  useful  as  guide  to  the  probable 


EUGENICS  129 

results  of  particular  matings.  We  now 
propose  to  give  an  instance  of  the  use  of 
statistical  methods  of  a  simpler  kind  for 
answering  the  easier  question  whether  hered- 
ity does  or  does  not  take  a  share  in  the 
causation  of  some  particular  qualities  or 
defects.  The  instance  is  one  of  interest, 
because  it  deals  with  a  subject  which  has  a 
direct  and  immediate  bearing  on  Eugenics. 
It  is  taken  from  a  memoir  by  Dr  J.  A.  Miu-ray, 
in  the  fourth  scientific  Report  of  the  Imperial 
Cancer  Research  Fund,  published  in  1911.  It 
is  now  generally  accepted  that  cancer  itself 
is  not  inherited,  but  that  in  many  forms  of 
the  disease  it  is  initiated  by  a  *long  continued 
process  of  localised  chronic  irritation.'  The 
question,  however,  remains  whether  the  ten- 
dency for  the  part  or  organ  irritated  to 
respond  by  the  development  of  cancer  is  or 
is  not  an  inherited  one.  It  is  a  question  of 
exceptional  difficulty  to  investigate  in  human 
beings;  but  if  it  can  be  answered  for  in  another 
mammal,  some  useful  preliminary  knowledge 
will  have  been  gained.  Dr  Murray  therefore 
started  investigations  on  mice,  which  are 
particularly  suitable,  as  they  are  short-lived 
animals,  easily  bred,  and  very  liable  to  be 
attacked  by  cancer.  The  nature  of  his 
material  limited  him  to  one  particular  form 
of  the  disease, — namely,  cancer  of  the  mamma, 
which  corresponds  to  cancer  of  the  breast  in 
human  beings. 


180  EUGENICS 

All  the  mice  which  he  had  under  observa- 
tion came  from  strains  in  which  cancer  was 
known  to  have  appeared  at  one  time  or 
another,  so  the  question  he  set  himself  to 
answer  was,  whether  mice  whose  mothers  or 
grandmothers  had  been  thus  affected  were 
more  liable  to  develop  the  disease  themselves 
than  those  in  whose  remote  ancestry  only  it 
had  occurred.  The  mice  were  all  kept  under 
standard  conditions,  so  that  no  disturbing 
effect  was  to  be  feared  from  the  environment; 
but  in  mice,  as  in  human  beings,  the  liability 
to  be  attacked  with  cancer  varies  consider- 
ably from  age  to  age,  and  accordingly  in 
making  a  comparison  between  the  two  classes 
it  was  necessary  to  group  each  according  to 
age,  and  to  compare  them  group  by  group. 

Let  us  call  the  class  of  mice  which  had 
mothers  or  grandmothers  with  cancer  A, 
and  the  other  class  whose  mothers  and  grand- 
mothers were  free  from  it  B.  There  were 
found  to  be  340  female  mice  in  the  A  class 
and  223  in  the  B  class.  Among  the  A  class 
there  were  sixty-two  who  had  lived  to  be 
nine  months  old,  and  in  the  B  class  thirty- 
eight.  Among  the  former  6*5  per  cent,  had 
died  of  cancer  of  the  mamma,  among  the 
latter  2*6  per  cent.  Sixty-three  of  the  A's 
had  lived  to  be  twelve  months  old,  and  in 
11*1  per  cent,  death  had  been  caused  in  this 
way,  while  among  the  forty-one  B's  who  had 
lived  to  this  age  9*8  per  cent,  had  suffered. 


EUGENICS  181 

24*2  per  cent,  of  the  fifteen-month  old 
A's  had  died  of  cancer,  but  only  8*8  per 
cent,  among  the  twenty-six  B's  of  this 
group;  and  if  one  traces  them  through 
the  other  classes,  the  A's,  or  those  who  had 
cancer  in  their  immediate  ancestry,  invari- 
ably showed  a  higher  percentage  than  the 
B's.  The  following  table  supplies  the  actual 
figures  ; — 

Age  in  Months. 
Glass  A.  ovbs 

0      12      15      18      21      24      24 
Total  number  in 

each  group  .     .      62      63      62      56      40      29      28 
Percentage    who 
died    of   cancer 
of  the  mamma       6-5  111  24-2  821  250  17-2  10-7 


Class  B. 

Total  number  in 

each  group  ..      88      41      26      88      29      26      25 
Percentage    who 

died    of   cancer 

of  the  mamma .    2-6     9-8     8-8  21-6     00  11-5     8*0 

On  the  face  of  it,  the  comparison  shows 
that  inheritance  plays  some  part  in  the 
causation  of  mammary  cancer  in  mice;  but 
the  number  compared  in  each  group  is  rather 
a  small  one,  and  it  is  not  easy  by  the  light  of 
nature  to  say  how  much  reliance  may  be 


132  EUGENICS 

placed  on  the  calculated  percentages.  In 
deciding  this  point,  Dr  Murray  follows  the 
best  practice  of  statisticians,  and  applies  the 
mathematical  theory  of  probabilities  to  deter- 
mine whether  the  differences  shown  in  the 
percentage  of  cancerous  mice  in  each  age- 
group  really  indicate  that  the  disease  is  more 
likely  to  occur  in  the  A  class  than  in  the  B» 
or  whether  they  are  a  chance  result  due  to 
the  numbers  being  too  small  to  decide  the 
point.  Tested  by  the  theory  of  probabilities, 
it  was  shown  that  if  each  age-group  were 
considered  separately  it  was  exceedingly 
improbable  that  the  differences  shown  in  the 
fifteen,  eighteen,  and  twenty-one-month 
groups  were  due  to  chance,  but  to  the 
remainder  no  significance  could  be  attached. 
If,  however,  all  the  groups  are  considered 
together,  the  fact  that  the  differences  are 
all  in  the  same  direction  very  greatly 
strengthens  the  conclusion  that  the  A  class, 
with  recent  cancerous  ancestry,  is  in  reality 
the  more  liable  to  the  disease;  a  fact  which 
can  be  most  readily  accounted  for  by  the 
supposition  that  the  liability  to  cancer  is  in 
this  case  at  any  rate  inherited. 

Dr  Murray  regards  this  only  as  a  pro- 
visional conclusion,  and  perhaps  it  will  be 
said  that  even  if  the  fact  were  finally  estab- 
lished it  would  be  unsafe  to  argue  from  it 
that  the  tendency  to  cancer  is  inherited  in 
human  beings.     In  answer,  we  would  point 


EUGENICS  188 

out,  in  the  first  place,  that  the  investigation 
has  only  been  described  here  as  an  instance 
of  the  application  of  simple  statistical  methods 
in  a  legitimate  way  for  the  study  of  an 
important  problem;  and,  secondly,  that  in 
the  absence  of  positive  evidence  to  the 
contrary  it  would  be  safer  to  assume  that 
the  tendency  to  cancer  is  inherited  in  man, 
than  to  assume  that  this  is  not  the  case. 

SUMMARY   or   CHAPTER 

Statistical  methods  are  useful  for  the  study 
of  inheritance,  at  any  rate  in  cases  which  elude 
Mendelian  analysis,  either  owing  to  their 
too  great  complexity  or  because  they  are 
exceptions  to  Mendel's  laws. 

The  systematic  statistical  study  of  inheri- 
tance was  initiated  by  Sir  Francis  Galton, 
who  invented  for  this  purpose  the  *  Regres- 
sion Diagram,'  and  expressed  the  degree  of 
resemblance  between  parents  and  children, 
and  between  members  of  the  same  fraternity 
by  regression  coefficients,  which  were  calcu- 
lated graphically  by  drawing  lines  and  measur- 
ing their  steepness.  The  regression  coefficients 
had  certain  disadvantages  which  are  absent 
in  the  correlation  coefficients.  The  earliest 
form  of  correlation  coefficient  is  essentially 
the  regression  coefficient  modified  by  drawftig 
the  regression  diagram  in  such  a  way  that 
the  quartile  deviation  (or  other  measure  of 


184  EUGENICS 

variability)  of  one  of  the  two  as  jociated  varia- 
bles is  represented  on  the  vertical  scale  of 
the  diagram  by  a  line  equal  in  length  to  that 
which  represents  the  quartile  deviation  of  the 
other  variable  on  the  horizontal  scale.  It  is, 
however,  usually  arrived  at  by  an  arithmetical 
and  not  by  a  graphical  process.  The  great 
development  of  the  theory  of  correlation  is 
due  to  Professor  Karl  Pearson,  who  has 
invented  methods  by  which  the  degree  of 
interdependence  between  the  variables  may 
be  measured,  even  if  the  variables  themselves 
cannot  be  directly  measured,  but  can  only 
be  divided  into  grades  or  classes. 

The  sort  of  generalisations  concerning 
heredity  which  may  be  arrived  at  by  the 
calculation  of  correlation  coefficients  are  then 
described  and  their  possible  use  in  predicting 
probabilities.  The  chapter  concludes  with 
a  description  of  a  statistical  research  into 
the  inheritance  of  the  tendency  to  develop 
cancer  among  mice,  as  an  example  of  the 
kind  of  results  which  can  sometimes  be 
obtained  by  the  use  of  quite  simple  methods. 


EUGENICS  186 

CHAPTER  VII 

THE  INHERITANCE   OF   ABILITY 

In  his  Memories  of  My  Life,  Galton  writes 
that  in  the  year  1860,  or  thereabouts,  'most 
authors  agreed  that  all  bodily  and  some 
mental  qualities  were  inherited  by  brutes, 
but  they  refused  to  believe  the  same  of  man.* 
Man's  physical  qualities  might  be  inherited, 
but  his  mental  qualities  were  not.  But 
owing  to  Galton's  own  investigations,  and 
those  of  other  writers,  a  mass  of  data  was 
accumulated  which  seemed  to  show  that 
this  view  was  a  wrong  one,  and  that  mental 
character  followed  the  same  rule  as  physical. 
Thus  gradually  psychic  inheritance  was 
accepted  as  a  firmly  established  fact,  and 
replaced  in  fiction  other  and  vaguer  forms 
of  the  ever-popular  'Hand  of  Destiny.' 

It  is  doubtful  whether  its  reality  would 
now  be  doubted,  if  it  were  not  that  it  seems 
to  conflict  with  many  cherished  beliefs  and 
many  educational  theories.  Yet  whatever 
the  reasons  may  be,  there  appears  at  the 
present  day  so  strong  a  tendency  to  question 
it,  that  it  is  worth  while  to  pass  in  review 
the  evidence  in  its  favour,  in  order  to  show, 
if  possible,  that  it  is  worthy  of  credence. 
If   physical   characters   only   were   inherited 


186  EUGENICS 

there  would  still  be  some  reason  for  Eugenics, 
but  its  scope  is  vastly  extended  by  including 
with  them  the  propensities  and  peculiarities 
of  the  mind. 

A  complete  account  of  the  evidence  is  of 
course  impossible  in  a  work  of  this  kind, 
for  its  full  consideration  might  occupy  a 
large  volume.  It  is,  however,  possible  to 
give  some  indication  of  its  nature,  and 
although  no  claim  will  be  made  that  a  rigid 
proof  of  the  inheritance  of  mental  faculties 
has  been  established,  it  is  hoped  that  as  good 
a  case  will  be  made  out  as  many  on  which 
a  man  has  been  hanged. 

As  few  will  dispute  that  mental  diseases, 
deformities,  or  deficiencies  are  or  may  be 
inherited,  their  consideration  will  be  reserved 
for  another  chapter;  in  this  place  'ability* 
will  be  the  principal  subject  discussed. 

Ability  depends  partly  on  certain  inborn 
qualities  of  mind  and  partly  on  education. 
Psychologists  distinguish  between  mental 
capacity  and  mental  contents.  The  latter 
consist  of  memories,  faculties,  and  habits 
l<rhich,  with  the  aid  of  the  former,  have  been 
implanted  in  the  mind  by  education  and 
experience.  It  is  not  supposed  that  mental 
contents  are  inherited,  so  the  student  of 
heredity  is  concerned  directly  only  with 
mental  capacity;  but  he  is  met  at  once  by 
the  difficulty  that  in  the  majority  of  cases 
there  is  no  measure  of  mental  capacity  but 


EUGENICS  18T 

mental  contents.  And  the  difiBcuIty  does 
not  end  here,  for  in  most  of  the  data  avail- 
able he  has  often  no  satisfactory  way  ol 
estimating  mental  contents,  but  must  rely  on 
records  of  achievements  which  depend,  at 
any  rate,  partly  on  opportimity.  Psychol- 
ogists are  now  devising  means  for  arriving 
at  a  direct  measure  of  mental  capacity,  and 
one  may  eventually  look  to  their  efforts  for 
providing  material  for  the  study  of  its  inheri- 
tance; but  as  up  to  the  present  little  has  been 
achieved  in  this  direction,  we  have  to  fall 
back  on  older  and  less  precise  methods. 

An  example  of  results  obtained  by  these  is 
Galton's  Hereditary  Genius;  here  he  endeav- 
ours to  prove  that  *  genius*  is  hereditary  by 
showing '  how  large  is  the  number  of  instances 
in  which  men  who  are  more  or  less  illustrious 
have  eminent  kinsfolk.*  Writing  in  1865,  he 
does  not  use  the  word  genius  in  the  sense 
in  which  it  is  commonly  used  now,  and  he 
explains  in  the  prefatory  chapter  of  the  edition 
of  1892  that  if  the  title  could  then  be  altered 
he  would  alter  it  to  Hereditary  Ability;  at  the 
same  time,  he  is  careful  to  explain  that  the 
word  ability  does  not  truly  represent  his 
meaning,  as  it  does  not  exclude  the  effects  of 
education. 

Galton  uses  the  words  eminent  and  illus- 
trious in  perfectly  definite  senses.  The 
former  term  is  applied  to  people  who  have 
achieved    a    position    about    equivalent    to 


188  EUGENICS 

that  attained  by  one  person  in  4000.  The 
word  illustrious  is  only  applied  to  the  few 
who  reach  the  far  higher  level  attained  by 
only  one  in  a  million.  He  proceeds  to  argue 
that  reputation  which  leads  to  distinction 
is  a  true  test  of  natural  ability,  provided 
that  reputation  is  taken  to  mean  '  the  opinion 
of  contemporaries  revised  by  posterity,'  and 
that  natural  ability  is  'those  qualities  of 
intellect  and  disposition  which  urge  and 
qualify  a  man  to  perform  acts  that  lead  to 
reputation' — for  instance,  capacity,  zeal,  and 
the  power  of  doing  a  great  deal  of  very 
laborious  work.  The  opportunities  for  rising 
are  so  numerous  that  a  man  provided  with 
these  gifts  is  almost  certain  to  rise  to  a  posi- 
tion in  which  they  will  be  recognised.  '  Social 
hindrances  cannot  impede  men  of  high 
ability  from  becoming  eminent.'  'Social 
advantages  are  incompetent  to  give  that 
status  to  men  of  moderate  ability.' 

After  giving  many  reasons  to  support 
these  views,  Galton  goes  on  to  examine  the 
relatives  of  groups  of  men  eminent  in  different 
walks  of  life.  The  English  judges  between  the 
years  1660  and  1865,  who  are  described  in 
Foss's  Lives  of  the  Judges^  are  taken  as  the 
first  group.  They  number  286,  and  of  these 
109  have  one  or  more  eminent  relatives,  and 
upwards  of  seventy,  two  or  more. 

If  only  one  person  in  4000  reaches  the 
degree  of  distinction  classed  by  Galton  as 


EUGENICS  189 

'eminence,'  it  is  obvious  from  these  figures 
that  the  relative  of  a  judge  has  many  times 
a  greater  chance  to  become  eminent  than  any 
person  -chosen  at  random  from  other  sections 
of  the  community.  But  Galton  does  not 
rely  for  his  demonstration  of  heredity  on 
arguments  such  as  these,  but  goes  on  to 
inquire  to  what  extent  the  nearness  of  rela- 
tionship gives  an  additional  chance  of  attain- 
ing this  degree  of  success.  Taking  the 
families  in  which  several  eminent  men  were 
found,  he  groups  the  various  members  accord- 
ing to  their  degree  of  kinship  to  the  most 
gifted  member,  and  then  finds  the  percentage 
of  eminent  men  in  each  group.  Among  the 
descendants  86  per  cent,  of  the  sons  were 
eminent,  9  per  cent,  of  the  grandsons,  and  1^ 
per  cent,  of  the  great-grandsons;  among  the 
ascendants,  26  per  cent,  of  the  fathers,  7i  per 
cent,  of  the  grandfathers,  and  i  per  cent,  of 
the  great-grandfathers.  Among  collaterals 
there  is  a  similar  falling  off  as  one  moves 
farther  away  from  the  central  figure. 

In  addition  to  this  it  was  found  that  among 
the  more  distinguished  of  the  judges  the 
percentage  of  those  who  had  eminent  relatives 
was  more  than  twice  as  high  as  among  the 
less  distinguished.  In  the  families  of  twenty- 
four  out  of  thirty,  or  80  per  cent,  of  the  Lord 
Chancellors  eminence  was  reached  by  other 
members,  while  in  the  families  of  the  remaining 
256  judges  this  occurred  in  only  90  cases,  oi 


MO  EUGENICS 

36  per  cent.  To  meet  the  obvious  objection 
that  Lord  Chancellors  have  more  opportunity 
than  others  of  thrusting  their  relatives  into 
eminence  by  jobbery,  Galton  goes  in  detail 
into  the  families  of  the  twenty-four  Lord 
Chancellors,  and  finds  that  there  is  little 
doubt  of  the  real  ability  of  the  eminent  men 
among  them. 

These  conclusions  were  supported  by  those 
arrived  at  upon  applying  the  same  methods 
of  consideration  to  the  families  of  men  pre- 
eminent in  other  walks  of  life. 

The  problem  is  attacked  in  a  slightly 
different  manner  in  a  more  recent  work,^  in 
which  an  attempt  is  made  to  estimate  how 
many  members  of  the  families  of  the  Fellows 
of  the  Royal  Society  attained  in  their  own 
occupations  an  amount  of  distinction  about 
equivalent  to  that  sufficient  to  qualify  a 
scientist  for  the  fellowship.  Accounts  are 
given  of  those  families  in  which  three  or  more 
of  the  members  had  at  least  this  amoimt  of 
success,  and  a  cursory  glance  through  them 
should  be  enough  to  convince  any  one  that 
the  accumulations  of  such  men  in  particular 
families  can  hardly  be  attributed  to  chance. 

One  may,  of  course,  be  willing  to  concede 
this,  and  yet  deny  that  heredity  is  the  effec- 
tive cause.  A  particularly  favourable  en- 
vironment common  to  the  members  might 
be  sufficient  to  bring  about  the  same  result. 

*  Galto»  and  Schuster,  Noteworthy  Families. 


EUGENICS  141 

We  will  return  to  this  point  after  considering 
further  evidence. 

In  order  to  meet  the  objection  that  family- 
patronage  is  sufficient  in  itself  to  be  taken 
as  the  reason  of  the  kind  of  facts  recorded 
above,  Dr  Woods*  collected  data  of  some- 
thing the  same  kind  in  America,  where,  he 
argued,  owing  to  different  social  conditions, 
family  influence  is  not  so  powerful  and  the 
opportunities  for  distinction  are  much  less 
unequally  distributed  than  in  the  older 
countries.  On  the  banks  of  the  Hudson,  in 
New  York,  is  an  arcade  which  contains 
memorials  to  those  who  have  been  the  most 
illustrious  members  of  the  American  Republic 
Only  forty-seven  people  have  up  till  now  been 
admitted  to  this  Temple  of  Fame,  the  qualifi- 
cations for  admission  to  which  are  extremely 
high.  In  our  coimtry  the  claims  of  candi- 
dates for  the  highest  posthumous  honours 
are  decided  on  in  a  hurry  by  persons  selected 
for  quite  a  different  purpose,  and  upon 
qualifications  only  slightly  connected  with 
their  ability  to  form  a  sound  opinion  on  this 
particularly  difficult  question.  Thus  it  might 
happen  that  the  merely  temporary  wave  of 
popular  appreciation,  on  which  public  men 
are  sometimes  raised  during  their  lifetimes,  is 
sufficient  to  carry  them  up  to  the  highest 

*  Dr  F.  A.  Woods,  Some  Interrelaiions  between  Eugenics 
and  Historical  Research.  Read  before  the  First  Inter- 
national Eugenic  Congress,  191 2. 


142  EUGENICS 

honours  with  which  the  nation  can  express 
its  gratitude  to  the  great  men  who  have  died. 
In  order  to  avoid  this  danger,  no  one  is  allowed 
to  enter  the  American  Hall  of  Fame  until 
several  years  after  his  death,  and  then  only 
with  the  approval  of  a  committee  of  a  hundred 
of  the  most  distinguished  men  of  the  day. 

Dr  Woods  set  on  foot  an  investigation  into 
the  family  histories  of  these  forty-seven  in 
order  to  find  how  many  were  related  as  closely, 
or  more  closely,  than  grandfather  to  grandson, 
to  members  of  another  group  of  3500  men 
whose  distinction  was  of  a  considerably 
lower  degree,  but  high  enough  to  warrant 
their  inclusion  in  one  or  other  of  two  standard 
biographical  dictionaries.  Fully  one-half  of 
the  forty-seven  had  close  relatives  among 
the  8500,  and  for  the  whole  forty-seven,  the 
average  was  more  than  one  apiece.  Now  the 
chances  of  any  man,  taken  at  random,  having 
so  close  a  relative  in  this  larger  group  is  about 
one  in  500  to  one  in  1000.  So  Dr  Woods 
concludes :  'The  amount  of  distinguished 
relationship  which  the  Hall  of  Fame  gives 
is  about  a  thousand  times  the  random  expec- 
tation.' He  goes  on  to  say,  'Intellectual 
distinction  is  just  as  much  of  a  family  affair 
in  the  new  country  and  in  a  freer  atmos- 
phere as  it  is  on  this-^  side  of  the  Atlantic, 
where  the  social  lines  are  supposed  to  be 
more  strictly  drawn.* 

He  was  speaking  in  London. 


EUGENICS  148 

We  will  next  describe  some  statistical 
results  of  a  rather  different  kind  obtained 
by  an  analysis  of  the  Oxford  examination 
records.^  The  arrangements  of  the  final 
examinations,  qualifying  for  the  degree  of 
Bachelor  of  Arts  at  the  University  of  Oxford, 
are  such  that  it  is  possible  to  divide  the  men 
who  have  gone  through  the  University  into 
six  classes  with  respect  to  their  success. 
They  may  pass  these  examinations  with 
honours  of  four  different  grades — first  class, 
second  class,  third  class,  and  fourth  class; 
they  may  pass  without  honours;  or  they 
may  fail  to  pass  at  all.  It  is  thus  possible  to 
form  a  sort  of  scale  of  success  with  first-class 
honours  at  the  top  and  failure  to  obtain  a 
degree  at  the  bottom,  and  the  six  divi^ons 
of  the  scale  will  form  a  rough  measure  of  the 
kind  of  ability  which  enables  people  to  succeed 
in  examinations.  It  is  not  claimed  that  men 
divided  according  to  this  scale  will  be  really 
accurately  sorted,  for  many  good  men  are 
prevented  by  accidental  circmnstances  from 
taking  degrees,  and  some  who  are  capable  of 
obtaining  fairly  high  honours  may  be  led  by 
a  variety  of  motives  to  attempt  nothing  more 
ambitious  than  a  pass. 

Whether  the  honours  examinations  really 
test  the  kind  of  ability  that  is  useful  in  after 
life  is  an  open  question,  but  it  may  safely  be 

^  The  Inheritance  of  Ability.  By  Edgar  Schuster  and 
E.  M.  Elderton. 


144  EUGENICS 

asserted  that  they  form  a  fairly  accurate 
measure  of  one  particular  kind  of  talent,  for 
a  man's  tutor  is  able  to  gauge  the  class  to 
which  he  will  attain  with  so  much  accuracy, 
that  it  is  evident  that  whatever  may  be 
the  conditions  most  favourable  to  success, 
it  can  rarely  be  merely  due  to  a  happy 
chance.  It  is  not  our  purpose  to  analyse 
the  special  talents  which  lead  to  success 
in  examinations,  but  it  may  safely  be  asserted 
that  they  are  formed  from  mental  qualities 
which  are  present  to  a  most  marked  degree 
in  first-class  honours  men,  to  a  slightly  less 
degree  in  second-class  men,  and  so  on  down 
the  scale.  Pass  men  have  it  developed  on  the 
average  less  than  those  placed  in  the  fourth 
class,  and  more  than  those  who  do  not  obtain 
degrees.  It  must  be  remembered  in  review- 
ing the  results  that  what  inaccuracies  this 
method  of  measurement  introduces  will  tend 
to  weaken  rather  than  strengthen  the 
apparent  amount  of  resemblance  shown 
between  members  of  the  same  family,  except 
where  they  are  introduced  by  the  action  of 
family  custom  or  tradition,  when  they  will 
be  likely  to  have  the  opposite  effect. 

The  system  of  honours  was  introduced 
into  the  University  in  the  year  1800,  and 
records  were  available  of  the  degree  taken 
by  each  man  who  entered  from  that  year 
to  1892,  and  of  the  degrees  taken  by 
their    fathers    and    brothers,    if    these    had 


EUGENICS  145 

also    been    at    the   University    during    this 

period. 

There  were  about  4000  men  between  the 

years    mentioned,    whose    fathers    had    also 

been   up,  and  had   had   the   opportunity  of 

entering    for     honours.      These    were     first 

divided  into  two  groups,  according  to  the  date 

at  which  they  took  or  failed  to  take  their 

degrees.    2459  were  placed  in  the  most  recent 

group,  and  were  foimd  to  consist  of  149  men 

with  first-class  honours,  329  who  were  placed 

in  the  second  class,  377  in  the  third,  and  190 

in  the  fourth.     868  had  taken  a  pass  degree, 

and  546  had  taken  no  degree  at  all.    Each  of 

these   six  classes   was   subdivided   according 

to  the  nature  of   the  degree   taken  by  the 

father,  and  a  table  was  constructed  on  much 

the  same  principle  as  Table  I.,  Chapter  VI. 

It  is  imnecessary  to  go  into  the  details  of 

the  table  here,   some  of  the  essential  facts 

which  could  be  deduced  from  it  are  shown  in 

Figure    III.,    in    which    the    percentage    of 

fathers  who  took  either  first  or  second  class 

honours  is  shown,  by  the  length  of  a  vertical 

line,  for  each  of  the  six  groups  of  sons.     The 

steady  way  in  which  this  percentage  sinks  as 

one  passes   down  from  the  highest  group  to 

the  lowest  is  the  feature  to  which  it  is  desired 

to   call   attention.     The   same   phenomenon 

recurs  among  the  earlier  group  of  sons  in 

a  manner  almost  more  decisively  marked. 

Measured  by  the  correlation  coeflBcient,  the 
s.  G 


146 


EUGENICS 


Figure  III.  (date  of  degree  of  sons,  1860-92). 
The  heights  of  the  vertical  lines  show  in  what  percentage 
of  cases  the  fathers  have  taken  either  first-class  or  second- 
class  honours.  The  diagram  is  intended  to  show  that  the 
percentage  of  fathers  who  obtained  this  degree  of  distinc- 
tion diminishes  with  some  regularity,  as  one  passes  down- 
wards from  the  sons  with  first-class  honours  to  those  with 
no  degrees.  

From  Schuster  and  Elderton,  Inheritance  of  Ability 
(Eugenics  Laboratory,  Memoirs  I.}. 


EUGENICS  147 

significance  of  which  is  described  in  the  last 
chapter,  the  resemblance  between  fathers  and 
sons  with  regard  to  the  degree  taken  can  be 
represented  as  about  '8,  or  almost  one- 
third.  The  result  is  not  very  different  whether 
the  earlier  or  the  later  group  is  dealt  with. 

The  resemblance  between  brother  and 
brother  was  measured  in  an  almost  identical 
way.  The  material  was  divided  in  this  case 
into  three  groups,  according  to  the  period 
in  which  the  degrees  were  taken,  but  closely 
accordant  results  were  obtained  in  each  case. 
The  coefficient  of  resemblance  never  differed 
widely  from  •4.  The  school  lists  of  two  public 
schools — namely,  Harrow  and  Charterhouse — 
were  subjected  to  an  analysis  of  a  very  similar 
kind,  which,  in  so  far  as  it  went,  provided 
corroborative  results.  It  was  not  possible 
on  the  basis  of  this  material  to  draw  any 
comparison  between  fathers  and  sons,  but 
the  resemblance  between  brothers  was  shown 
to  be  about  as  close  as  was  indicated  by  the 
consideration  of  the  Oxford  Examination  lists. 

The  resemblance  between  children  of  the 
same  parents  with  regard  to  some  physical 
and  intellectual  characters  was  the  subject 
of  an  important  research  conducted  by 
Professor  Karl  Pearson,  with  the  assist- 
ance of  many  collaborators.  His  'Huxley 
Lecture,'^  delivered  before  the  Anthropological 
Institute,  contains  a  description  of  the  results 

*  Biometrika.     1904. 


148  EUGENICS 

of  this  investigation.  The  material  on  which 
it  was  based  was  collected  by  the  masters 
and  mistresses  in  a  very  large  number  of 
different  schools.  The  mental  or  physical 
characters  investigated  were  Vivacity,  Asser- 
tiveness,  Introspection,  Popularity,  Conscien- 
tiousness, Temper,  Ability,  Hand-writing. 

As  no  means  has  yet  been  discovered  for 
obtaining  a  direct  mechanical  measure  of  any 
of  these  qualities,  the  estimates  of  the  school 
masters  and  mistresses  had  to  be  relied  on. 
From  these  estimates  the  boys  and  girls 
could  be  divided  for  each  character  into  two 
classes.  Take  as  an  example  'ability.'  In 
the  directions  which  were  sent  out  as  to  how 
the  blank  schedules  should  be  filled  in, 
instructions  were  given  to  assign  to  each 
child  one  of  the  following  six  grades  of  intelli- 
gence:— Quick  Intelligent,  Intelligent,  Slow 
Intelligent,  Slow,  Slow  Dull,  Very  Dull. 
But  in  constructing  the  tables  the  first  two 
grades  were  united  to  form  one  class  and  the 
lower  four  grades  the  other.  From  one  table 
it  was  then  found  that  when  the  two  classes 
into  which  the  six  original  grades  were 
grouped  are  called  respectively  Intelligent 
and  Dull,  666  pairs  of  sisters  were  both 
intelligent  and  655  were  both  dull,  and  in 
the  remaining  792  cases  one  was  intelligent 
and  the  other  dull. 

From  figures  such  as  these  correlation  co- 
efficients   can    be    calculated    with    perfect 


EUGENICS  149 

facility.  Each  of  the  eight  psychical  char- 
acters was  treated  in  this  way,  and  for  each 
the  correlation  between  brother  and  brother, 
sister  and  sister,  and  brother  and  sister  were 
worked  out.  Thus  twenty-four  coefficients 
were  obtained,  of  which  none  was  lower 
than  '42,  and  none  higher  than  '62.  The 
majority  clustered  round  '52, 

These  values  are  probably  higher  than  would 
be  the  case  if  an  accurate  impersonal  measure 
of  the  degree  of  the  development  of  the 
characters  invesitgated  had  been  made. 
There  is,  however,  no  means  available  for 
making  such  a  measure,  and  we  must  there- 
fore be  content  with  estimates  such  as  were 
used.  They  would  probably  not  introduce 
any  serious  error,  if  it  could  be  assured  that 
the  same  standard  was  applied  by  each 
teacher;  but,  as  in  marking  examination 
papers  some  examiners  are  apt  to  give  slightly 
higher  marks  than  others,  so  it  is  probable 
that  one  teacher  would  enter  boys  or  girls 
as  intelligent,  whom  another  would  regard 
as  slow  intelligent,  or  a  third  as  quick  intelli- 
gent. As  both  members  of  the  same  pair 
would  often  be  judged  by  the  same  teacher, 
the  result  would  be  that  out  of  a  group  of 
children  who  all  really  belonged  to  the 
intelligent  class  some  pairs  of  brothers  or 
sisters  would  be  entered  in  the  quick  intelli- 
gent and  others  in  the  slow  intelligent  class. 
Mutatis  mutandis  the  same  would  be  true 


150  EUGENICS 

about  the  higher  and  lower  divisions  of  the 
intelligence  scale  and  about  the  other  psychical 
characters.  This  would  give  rise  to  an 
apparent  correlation  between  children  of  the 
same  parents,  even  if  there  were  no  real 
resemblance  between  them. 

It  would  be  unfair  to  say  this  without  also 
explaining  that  where  the  two  members  of 
a  pair  were  not  judged  by  the  same  teachers, 
differences  in  the  standards  employed  might 
give  rise  to  apparent  diversity  in  cases  where 
there  was  real  similarity,  and  simple  faults  of 
judgment  would  tend  to  have  the  same 
effect.  Thus  errors  in  the  values  of  the  corre- 
lation coefficients  introduced  in  the  manner 
first  described  would  be  counterbalanced  to 
some  extent,  though  probably  not  entirely, 
by  those  last  described,  which  have  a  different 
influence  on  the  results. 

Up  to  this  point  we  have  endeavoured  to 
show  by  the  consideration  of  evidence  drawn 
from  various  sources  that  members  of  the 
same  family  tend  to  resemble  one  another 
with  regard  to  their  mental  characters,  and 
that  this  resemblance  can  be  roughly 
measured.  We  have  not  tried  to  prove  that 
it  is  due  in  any  degree  to  heredity. 

If  mental  characters  were  wholly  due  to  the 
environment,  resemblances  between  persons 
closely  related  to  one  another  would  also  be 
shown,  since  it  is  probably  true  that  members 
of  the  same   family  are  subjected  to  more 


EUGENICS  151 

nearly  similar  environmental  influences  than 
members  of  different  families.  While  admit- 
ting that  part  of  the  resemblance  may  be 
accomited  for  in  this  way,  we  intend  to  argue 
that  certain  facts  are  absolutely  inconsistent 
with  the  supposition  that  the  whole  may  be, 
and  that  if  to  some  extent  psychical  char- 
acters are  not  determined  by  the  environ- 
ment, then  to  that  extent  the  most  credible 
theory  to  account  for  them  is  that  mental 
capacity  is  inherited. 

This  argimient  has  been  put  forward  in 
a  forcible  manner  by  Dr  Woods,  as  a  result 
of  his  studies  on  heredity,  as  shown  in  the 
pedigrees  of  royal  personages,  and  his  words 
wUl  here  be  quoted  : — 

'When  complete  pedigrees  can  be  con- 
structed and  information  obtained  concerning 
the  lives,  achievements,  and  characteristics 
of  whole  family  groups,  the  wicked  as  well  as 
the  virtuous,  the  stupid  as  well  as  the 
brilliant,  it  becomes  evident  at  once,  on 
examining  such  charts,  that  the  strongest 
contrasts  are  everywhere  the  rule,  even  among 
those  close  of  kin.  A  similar  environment 
ought,  if  effective,  to  mould  people  towards  the 
same  mental  pattern.  But  royalty,  historically 
considered,  has  not  been  so  moulded.  There 
is  no  reasonable  cause  why  Frederick  the 
Great  was  so  different  from  his  weak-kneed 
and  almost  forgotten  ancestor,  George  William 
of  Brandeburg,  except  inborn  determiners.* 


152  EUGENICS 

It  is  unnecessary  to  raise  one's  imagina- 
tion to  these  extreme  social  altitudes  to  reach 
a  similar  conclusion.  Most  people  with 
fairly  developed  powers  of  observation,  who 
have  had  reasonable  opportunities  for  mixing 
with  their  fellows,  should  be  able  to  some 
extent  to  examine  the  question  in  the  light 
of  their  own  personal  experience.  Familiarity 
with  the  characteristics  of  several  members  of 
half  a  dozen  families  will  generally  reveal 
differences  between  brothers  which  cannot  be 
accounted  for  by  pointing  to  any  differences 
in  the  conditions  under  which  they  were 
brought  up. 

The  fact  that  sharp  contrasts  in  character 
and  ability  between  near  relatives  do  un- 
doubtedly exist  is  quite  incompatible  with  the 
view  that  mental  qualities  are  determined 
wholly  by  the  environment,  but  is  consistent 
with  theories  of  heredity,  which,  like  the 
Mendelian,  recognise  alternative  inheritance 
or  the  circumstance  that  characters  latent 
through  many  generations  may  reappear 
clearly  and  definitely  when  the  right  combina- 
tion of  gametes  or  germplasm  is  formed. 

The  conclusion  that  mental  capacity  is  to 
some  extent  inherited  seems  to  follow  almost 
as  a  necessity  from  this  train  of  argument. 
But  we  will  not  leave  it  without  examining 
other  facts,  which  may  directly  corroborate 
it.  For  these  we  will  turn  first  to  the  com- 
paratively   new     science     of     Experimental 


EUGENICS  158 

Psychology.  The  general  aim  of  this  science 
is  to  describe  and  analyse  mental  processes 
by  devising  experiments  to  test  quite  simple 
faculties.  Its  primary  object  is  to  find  out 
the  way  in  which  the  mind  works,  but  its 
methods  of  investigation  can  be  applied 
profitably  to  the  study  of  inheritance.  It 
deals  with  characters  which  are  much  simpler 
and  much  less  dependent  on  education  or 
environment  than  any  which  can  be  estimated 
by  success  in  life  or  success  in  examinations. 
Frequently  a  positive  measure  of  some  kind 
can  be  applied  which  does  not  depend  on 
the  idiosyncrasies  of  the  person  who  applies 
it,  thus  the  chances  of  error  referred  to  in 
describing  Pearson's  work  on  the  inheritance 
of  psychical  characters  may  be  entirely 
eliminated. 

The  contributions  which  experimental  psy- 
chology has  made  up  to  the  present  to  the  study 
of  inheritance  are  very  small,  but  such  as  they 
are  they  seem  a  step  in  the  right  direction. 

As  an  example  may  be  taken  some  of 
the  work  of  Mr  Cyril  Burt,^  who  compared 
three  groups  of  children  of  the  same  age, 
the  first  from  a  preparatory  school  at  Oxford, 
the  second  from  a  higher  elementary  school 
at  Oxford,  and  the  third  from  Liverpool 
slums.     The  first  group  were  for  the  most 

*  'Experimental  Tests  of  Higher  Mental  Processes  and 
their  relation  to  General  Intelligence,'  Journal  of  Experi- 
mental Pedagogy,  191 1.  'The  Inheritance  of  Mental 
Characters,'  Eugenics  Review,  July,   1912. 


154  EUGENICS 

part  the  sons  of  university  professors, 
college  lecturers  and  tutors,  Fellows  of  the 
Royal  Society,  and  bishops — all  men  whose 
position  in  life  depended  to  a  great  extent 
on  their  intellectual  attainments.  The  second 
group  were  principally  the  sons  of  small 
tradesmen. 

The  tests  applied  were  very  various  in 
their  nature;  some  of  them  were  thought 
by  the  boys  to  be  like  drawing-room  games. 
For  instance,  one  of  the  most  reliable,  'The 
Alphabet  Test,  consists  in  measuring  with 
a  stop-clock  the  number  of  seconds  required 
to  pick  out,  in  order,  one  complete  alphabet 
from  two  alphabets  of  cardboard  letters, 
arranged  in  irregular  array  upon  a  prepared 
sheet.'  In  another  the  boys  were  required 
to  erase  the  letters  O  and  E  from  a  page  of 
capital  letters  printed  in  haphazard  order. 
The  nmnber  of  letters  correctly  erased  in 
two  minutes  was  taken  as  the  measure  of 
success. 

A  third  was  a  missing- word  test :  '  A  piece 
of  prose  is  given  with  certain  words  omitted, 
and  the  boys  had  to  supply  in  the  places 
left  the  words  that  best  completed  the  meaning 
suggested  by  the  context.' 

In  another  the  boys  were  given  a  sheet  of 
paper,  on  which  100  words  were  printed  in 
columns;  they  were  required  to  write  opposite 
to  each  the  first  word  suggested  by  it.  Thus 
after  black  such  words  as  ink  or  white  could 


EUGENICS  155 

be  written.  The  number  of  words  supplied 
in  7i  minutes  was  here  used  as  the  measure. 
In  addition  to  the  tests  here  described,  many 
others  were  employed,  and  the  results  corre- 
lated with  the  teachers'  estimates  of  the  boys* 
intelligence.  It  was  found  that,  for  some  of 
them  the  correlation  was  fairly  high,  for 
others  less  high,  or  absent,  or  even  negative. 

In  these  tests,  which  were  highly  corre- 
lated with  general  intelligence,  the  Oxford 
preparatory  school  boys  did  imiformly  better 
than  the  Oxford  elementary  school  boys, 
while  the  latter  were  considerably  in  advance 
of  the  boys  from  the  Liverpool  slums.  In  the 
alphabet  test,  for  instance,  the  average  time 
taken  by  the  first-named  group  was  74 
seconds,  by  the  second  91  seconds,  and  by 
the  last  123  seconds. 

It  would  be  difficult  to  explain  these  results 
on  any  other  theory  than  that  mental 
capacity  is  inherited.  Whatever  are  the 
innate  differences  between  university  pro- 
fessors, small  tradesmen,  and  the  denizens 
of  the  Liverpool  slums,  by  the  time  they 
reach  adult  life  there  is  little  question  that 
the  order  in  which  they  would  be  placed 
with  regard  to  their  intellectual  qualities  is 
the  same  as  that  in  which  they  are  here 
written,  and  it  can  hardly  be  maintained 
that  the  sons  of  the  first  group  have  much 
better  opportunities  for  acquiring  the  faculties 
which   enable    them   to    come    well   out   of 


15G  EUGENICS 

the  alphabet  test  than  those  of  the  second 
group. 

Mr  Burt^  has  also  been  able  to  obtain 
some  more  direct  evidence  by  measuring  the 
correlation  between  adults  and  their  parents 
for  various  relatively  simple  psychical  char- 
acters. For  the  degree  of  sensitiveness  of  the 
skin,  measured  by  the  sesthesiometer,  the 
coefficient  of  correlation  was  found  to  be  '29. 
For  'Reaction  Time'  {i.e.  the  interval  that 
elapses  between  the  exhibition  or  application 
of  a  stimulus  to  an  individual  and  his  response 
to  it  in  a  prescribed  manner)  the  coefficients 
of  correlation  were  found  to  be  'SS,  where  the 
stimulus  was  some  object  suddenly  displayed, 
and  '27  when  the  signal  was  given  by  sound. 

In  addition  to  this,  Professor  Thorndike,* 
of  Columbia  University,  investigated  the 
resemblance  between  twins,  using  tests  of 
a  somewhat  similar  nature  to  those  employed 
by  Mr  Burt  (marking  particular  letters  in 
printed  sheets  of  letters  arranged  at  random, 
or  words  in  an  unknown  foreign  language; 
marking  misspelt  words  in  a  passage  of  easily 
worded  prose;  adding  and  multiplying  simple 
sums;  supplying  words  meaning  the  opposite 
of  those  in  a  printed  list  supplied).  The 
degree  of  similarity  between  the  twins  of 
a   pair   was   found   to   be   very   high.     The 

*  From  an  account  very  kindly  given  to  the  author 
by  Mr  Burt  of  some  researches  still  in  progress. 

•  Thorndike,  Educational  Psychology. 


EUGENICS  '  157 

correlation  coefficients  between  them  for  the 
various  characters  measured  were  never  lower 
than  '69,  and  went  up  to  '90.  Professoi 
Thomdike  is  careful  to  point  out  that  twins 
are  probably  under  the  influence  of  a  very 
similar  environment,  to  which  some  of  th6 
resemblance  may  be  due;  but  argues  that  if 
the  environment  is  its  principal  cause,  the 
resemblance  ought  to  increase  as  the  children 
grow  older  and  the  environment  has  more  and 
more  time  to  act  on  them.  Instead  of  this 
being  the  case,  he  found  on  dividing  them  into 
two  groups,  one  aged  9-11  and  the  other 
12-14,  that  the  resemblance  is  actually  closer 
in  the  former  group  than  in  the  latter.  The 
correlation  between  children  of  the  same 
parents  a  few  years  apart  in  age  for  some  of 
the  same  characters  was  found  to  be  con 
siderably  less  than  that  between  twins. 

Both  Mr  Burt's  results  and  those  of  Profes- 
sor Thomdike  are  based  on  numbers  which 
are  rather  small  to  deduce  any  but  provisional 
conclusions  from,  and  there  are  additional 
objections  to  the  work  of  the  latter;  yet  when 
all  allowances  are  made,  there  rem£»ns 
evidence  of  some  importance  when  taken  in 
conjimction  with  that  previously  cited,  while 
the  methods  which  they  have  indicated  ought 
in  the  future  to  prove  a  fruitful  soiu*ce  o( 
more  accurate  knowledge  of  the  subject. 

A  study  of  the  differences  in  the  mental 
powers  of  different  races  is  another  field  to 


U'6  EUGENICS 

(p/hich  one  might  turn  for  evidence  of  inheri- 
tance. If  it  were  found  that  the  inter-racial 
differences  are  considerable  and  could  not  be 
accounted  for  by  differences  in  the  conditions 
of  life,  it  would  be  fair  to  conclude  that 
inheritance  played  a  part  in  their  causation. 

Unfortunately  there  appears  to  be  no  sub- 
ject on  which  accurate  data  are  less  easily 
obtained  than  this,  and  it  would  be  unsafe  to 
base  any  argument  for  inheritance  on  the 
slender  material  at  present  available.  The 
general  conclusion  to  be  drawn  from  it  is 
that  uncivilised  races,  with  one  or  two  excep- 
tions, are  not  markedly  different  with  regard 
to  some  mental  characters  from  societies 
which  have  been  in  a  high  state  of  culture  for 
many  centuries.  From  this,  one  inference  may 
perhaps  be  drawn  which  supports  the  basic 
principles  of  selective  Eugenics — ^namely, 
that  centuries,  even  millennia,  of  culture 
have  not  succeeded  in  affecting  any  marked 
improvement  in  man's  mental  nature,  there- 
fore the  mental  development  which  is  one  of 
the  objects  and  results  of  education  does  not 
appear  to  be  inherited. 

The  directed  evidence  bearing  on  the 
inheritance  of  mental  capacity  has  now  been 
sufficiently  discussed,  but  there  are  certain 
a  priori  arguments  bearing  on  the  question 
which  deserve  a  passing  mention. 

It  may  well  be,  and  has  been,  claimed  that 
the  distinction  between  mental  and  physical 


EUGENICS  159 

characters  is  more  apparent  than  real. 
Mental  characters  may  be  regarded,  to  some 
extent  at  any  rate,  as  the  outward  expression 
of  such  undoubted  physical  characters  as 
the  structure  of  certain  parts  of  the  brain. 
There  are  many  facts  recorded  to  suggest 
such  a  view.  For  obvious  reasons  it  is  difficult 
to  prove  that  brain  structure  is  inherited, 
but  it  would  be  surprising  if  it  were  an 
exception  to  the  rule  which  applies  to  every 
other  part  of  the  body,  and  some  direct 
observations  have  been  made  which  seem  to 
show  that  this  is  not  the  case.  The  brains  of 
two  or  three  members  of  a  certain  number  of 
families  have  been  removed  after  death  and 
their  external  features  compared,  and  it  has 
been  found  definitely  that  as  to  the  manner 
in  which  the  surface  is  infolded  there  is  more 
resemblance  between  members  of  the  same 
family  than  between  members  of  different 
families.  Though  this  external  configuration 
may  not  be  a  character  on  which  mental 
capacity  depends  to  any  very  large  extent, 
the  fact  of  its  hereditary  transmission  un- 
doubtedly tends  to  show  that  the  brain  is 
merely  a  part  of  the  body  subject  to  the  same 
laws  as  other  parts,  and  therefore  that  if 
special  or  general  ability  depends  to  some 
extent  on  its  structure  to  that  extent  it  too 
will  be  inherited. 

Afttr  considering  the  published  evidence 
a  word  must  be  said  of  facts  which  most  people 


160  EUGENICS 

may  collect  for  themselves.  They  are  difficult 
to  record,  but  are  perhaps  more  convincing 
than  any  quantity  of  statistics.  If  one  knows 
Well  several  members  of  a  family,  one  is  bound 
to  see  in  them  likenesses  with  regard  to  mental 
traits,  both  large  and  small,  which  may  some- 
times be  accounted  for  by  example  on  the 
one  hand  or  unconscious  imitation  on  the 
other,  but  are  often  quite  inexplicable  on  any 
other  theory  than  heredity.  It  is  difficult 
to  understand  how  the  inheritance  of  mental 
capacity  can  be  denied  by  those  whose  eyes 
are  open  and  whose  minds  are  open  too. 

SUMMARY   OF   CHAPTER 

This  chapter  provides  a  brief  survey  of 
the  evidence  on  which  the  case  for  the  inheri- 
tance of  mental  characters  such  as  ability 
rests.  Resemblance  in  achievement  and 
reputation  between  members  of  the  same 
family  is  shown  by  Galton's  work  on  Hereditary 
GeniuSy  part  of  which  is  here  described,  and 
by  other  work  of  a  similar  nature.  It  is 
argued  that  such  similarity  in  reputation 
depends  largely  on  similarity  in  the  ability, 
without  which  the  reputations  would  not 
have  been  made,  even  if  family  influence 
provided  exceptional  opportunities  for  it. 
Dr  Woods's  researches  on  the  relatives  of 
Americans  whose  distinction  has  been  recog- 
nised by  placing  them  in  the  Temple  of  Fame 


EUGENICS  161 

show  that  in  a  country  where  family  patronage 
is  much  less  powerful  than  here  there  is  the 
same  degree  of  family  resemblance. 

The  statistical  statement  of  the  likeness 
shown  by  sons  to  their  fathers  with  regard  to 
success  in  examinations  for  the  degree  of 
Bachelor  of  Arts  in  Oxford  is  then  cited, 
together  with  Professor  Karl  Pearson's 
measure  of  the  resemblance  with  regard  to 
psychical  characters  between  brothers  and 
sisters  while  at  school. 

The  question  then  arises  whether  this 
resemblance  is  really  due  to  heredity  or  to 
similarity  of  environment,  and  it  is  shown  by 
considering  the  sharp  contrasts  between  mem- 
bers of  the  same  family  brought  up  in  the 
same  environment  that  the  latter  cannot  be 
the  only  or  even  the  more  important  factor. 

The  results  obtained  by  the  methods  of 
Experimental  Psychology  are  then  examined, 
and  appear  to  support  this  conclusion. 
Finally,  another  line  of  reasoning  is  sug- 
gested— ^namely,  that  as  mental  capacity  is 
largely  the  expression  of  physical  characters, 
and  as  it  may  be  supposed  that  all  physical 
characters  are  inherited,  it  follows  that 
mental  capacity  is  probably  inherited  also. 


162  EUGENICS 

CHAPTER  VIII 

TUBERCULOSIS,     INSANITY,     FEEBLE- 
MINDEDNESS,   AND    EPILEPSY 

Of  the  many  diseases  in  the  causation  of 
which  heredity  has  been  regarded  as  an 
important  factor,  there  is  none  more  common 
or  more  deadly  than  tuberculosis.  No  one 
disputes  the  fact  that  pulmonary  phthisis  or 
consumption,  the  form  of  tuberculosis  that 
most  frequently  causes  death,  has  a  strong 
tendency  to  run  in  families,  and  up  till  the 
last  part  of  the  nineteenth  century  the  medical 
profession  attributed  this  to  inheritance. 
When  the  tubercle  bacillus  was  discovered,  it 
became  obvious  that  the  disease  itself  was  not 
inherited,  and  in  consequence  the  opinions 
of  physicians  swung  over  to  the  opposite 
extreme,  and  now  many,  if  not  the  majority, 
declare  that  infection  is  the  only  cause,  that 
heredity  plays  no  part  whatever,  and  that 
consumption  runs  in  families  because  if  one 
member  catches  it  the  others  get  infected. 
The  latter  view  has  been  widely  accepted, 
because  belief  in  it  makes  the  prospect  of 
entirely  preventing  the  disease  appear  more 
hopeful,  and  the  human  mind  is  always  ready 
to  believe  what  it  wants  to  believe.  Indeed, 
while  Charity  is  but  moderately  active, 
Faith  and  Hope  seem  to  have  run  mad.  It 
has  even  been  asserted  that  it  is  useless  to 


EUGENICS  163 

build  Sanatoria  durable  enough  to  last  more 
than  ten  years,  because  in  ten  years'  time  the 
Insurance  Act  will  have  abolished  consumption. 

It  is  possible  to  take  up  an  intermediate 
position  between  the  old  opinion  and  the 
new.  One  cannot  maintain  that  there  can  be 
tuberculosis  without  infection,  but  various 
considerations  may  still  be  urged  to  support 
the  view  that  different  individuals  have  the 
power  to  resist  it  in  different  degrees,  and  that 
in  consumptive  families  a  lack  of  resisting  power 
is  transmitted  from  parents  to  children. 

That  the  tubercle  bacillus  is  ever3rwhere 
about  us,  and  that  comparatively  few  people 
entirely  escape  its  attacks  are  facts  now 
generally  admitted.  But  the  disease  may 
occur  in  so  slight  a  form  that  the  person 
attacked  recovers  from  it  without  being  aware 
that  anything  has  been  wrong.  Is  it  something 
in  the  man  or  something  in  the  microbe  that 
causes  such  differences  in  the  severity  of  the 
disease?  Professor  Metchnikoff  ^  says  that  it 
is  something  in  the  microbe.  His  theory  is 
that  there  are  some  deadly  and  virulent 
strains  of  tubercle  bacilli  and  others  com- 
paratively inoffensive,  and  that  if  one  has  the 
good  fortune  to  be  attacked  in  one's  youth 
by  the  latter,  one  acquires  the  same  kind  of 
immunity  against  the  former  as  vaccination 
gives  one  against  smallpox.  This  may  be 
true;   it  does  not  exclude  the  possibility  that 

'  Bedrock,  January,  1913. 


164  EUGENICS 

there  is  something  innate  in  the  man,  planted 
there  by  inheritance,  which  is  the  cause  of 
the  effects  described. 

Social  conditions  provide  data  for  deter- 
mining the  relative  shares  of  heredity  and 
infection  in  the  production  of  consumptive 
families  which  are  almost  as  easy  to  interpret 
as  the  results  of  a  simple  experiment.  If  it 
is  argued  that  parents  live  with  their  children, 
and  are  therefore  likely,  if  tubercular,  to 
impart  the  disease  to  them,  it  must  also  be 
admitted  that  husbands  live  in  as  intimate 
association  with  their  wives  and  are  just  as 
likely  to  infect  them  or  to  be  infected  by  them. 
The  environmental  conditions,  such  as  housing 
and  ventilation,  are  the  same  in  each  case, 
and  can  therefore  be  disregarded;  so  that  if 
heredity  is  a  negligible  factor,  the  correlation 
between  husband  and  wife  with  regard  to 
the  presence  or  absence  of  consumption 
should  be  as  high  as  that  between  parents 
and  children.  This  is  very  far  from  being  the 
case.  Whereas  the  correlation  between 
parents  and  children  for  pulmonary  tuber- 
culosis lies  between  '4  and  '6,^  that  between 
husband  and  wife  lies  between  0  and  'S^*. 
Even   in   the    latter    case    not   all    of    this 

^  Karl  Pearson,  A  First  Study  of  the  Statistics  of 
Pulmonary  Tuberculosis.     1907. 

*  Ernest  Pope,  Karl  Pearson,  and  E.  M.  Elderton, 
A  Second  Stud'^  of  the  Statistics  of  Pulmonary  Tuberculosis: 
Marital  Infection.     1908. 

'  Charles  Goring,  On  the  Inheritance  of  the  Diathesis 
of  Phthisis  and  Insanity.     1909. 


EUGENICS  165 

can  be  attributed  to  marital  infection,  as  it 
may  be  partly  due  to  assortative  mating  or 
the  well-known  tendency  of  like  stocks  to 
intermarry.  This  tendency,  the  influence  of 
which  varies  from  one  class  to  another,  is 
clearly  shown  in  characters,  in  the  causation 
of  which  infection  plays  no  part.  Thus  the 
marital  correlation  for  insanity  among  upper 
class  families  was  foimd  to  be  '3  (Pearson, 
Elderton),  among  the  well-to-do  and  pros- 
perous poor  '35  (Goring).  Among  the  very 
poor  and  destitute  it  is  nil  ((ioring);  but  in 
this  class  the  correlation  between  husband 
and  wife  for  consumption  is  also  at  its  lowest. 
For  physical  characters  generally,  such  as 
stature,  the  correlation  between  husband 
and  wife  in  the  well-to-do  classes  varies  about 
the  average  value  of  •24.  Further,  in  the  same 
classes  and  districts  positive  correlation  was 
found  between  the  presence  of  tuberculosis 
in  the  wife's  family  and  in  the  husband's.  It 
thus  is  quite  clear  that  some  allowance  must 
be  made  for  assortative  mating,  and  when  this 
has  been  made  there  is  but  little  left  to  be 
attributed  to  infection.  On  the  other  hand, 
there  is,  as  has  been  previously  stated, 
a  strong  correlation  between  parents  and 
children  who  have  no  greater  opportunities 
for  affecting  one  another.  So  the  conclusion 
seems  to  follow  inevitably  that  the  correla- 
tion must  be  largely  due  to  the  inheritance  of 
the  tuberculous  diathesis — that  is  to  say.  the 


166  EUGENICS 

special  liability  to  be  infected  with  a  serious 
form  of  the  disease. 

Other  arguments  confirm  this  conclusion. 
Tuberculosis  and  certain  types  of  insanity  are 
often  associated  together.  According  to  Dr 
Mott,  the  pathologist  to  the  London  County 
Asylums,  *the  death-rate  from  pulmonary 
tuberculosis  for  the  insane  between  the  ages 
of  fifteen  and  thirty-five  is  about  fifteen  times 
that  of  the  sane  for  the  same  age  period.* 
This  difference  cannot  be  attributed  to  infec- 
tion, because  among  the  1800  attendants  in 
the  asylums  tuberculosis  has  been  very  rare, 
and  if  infection  were  the  principal  cause  the 
disease  would  certainly  be  common  among  the 
attendants  also.  Nor  can  it  be  attributed  to 
insanitary  conditions  such  as  bad  air  or  bad 
food,  because  in  these  respects  a  high  standard 
is  maintained,  and  indeed  the  asylums  are 
far  healthier  as  places  of  residence  than  the 
homes  from  which  the  patients  come.  The 
only  cause  which  can  be  assigned  to  it  is  some 
inborn  defect  of  physical  vitality  which  ren- 
ders lunatics  of  this  description  an  easy  prey 
to  the  ubiquitous  tubercle  bacillus  in  the  same 
way  as  their  minds  through  some  inborn 
defect  are  unbalanced  by  the  shocks  and 
stresses  commonly  met  with  in  life,  and  by 
events  or  habits  which  have  little  effect  on 
persons  of  ordinary  mental  stability. 

That  heredity  plays  an  important  part  in 
the  propagation  of  insanity  itself  is  disputed 


EUGENICS  167 

by  few.  It  is  easy  to  adduce  facts  to  support 
it.  For  example,  Dr  Mott  points  out  that 
among  20,000  patients  in  the  London  County 
Asylmns,  725,  or  3*6  per  cent.,  have  either 
a  brother  or  sister,  a  parent  or  a  child  in  the 
asylums.  He  argues  that  it  cannot  be  sup- 
posed that  if  20,000  people  were  picked  at 
random  from  the  classes  which  supply  the 
asylum  population  so  many  would  be  so 
closely  related  :  and  therefore  heredity  must 
play  a  part  in  making  the  selection. 

Dr  Heron,  ^  making  more  precise  calcula- 
tions from  data  which,  though  not  very 
extensive,  had  been  very  carefully  collected, 
estimates  the  correlation  between  parents 
and  children  to  be  between  '45  and  '55,  which 
is  approximately  the  same  as  that  for  physical 
characters  such  as  stature. 

The  examination  of  detailed  pedigrees  in 
addition  to  statistical  considerations  of  in- 
sane stocks  leaves  little  room  for  doubt 
concerning  the  inheritance  of  insanity.  Yet 
it  is  as  inaccurate  to  talk  of  the  inheritance 
of  insanity  as  the  inheritance  of  tuberculosis. 
The  inmiediate  cause  of  the  latter  is  the 
attack  of  a  microbe,  and  of  the  former  it 
may  be  one  of  the  many  incidents  or  acci- 
dents in  the  life  of  the  insane  person;  but  in 
the  same  way  as  those  who  are  free  from  the 
tuberculous  diathesis  can  repulse  the  attack 

*  A  First  Study  of  the  Statistics  of  Insanity  and  the 
Inheritance  of  the  Insane  Diathesis. 


168  EUGENICS 

without  knowing  that  it  has  taken  place,  so 
those  who  are  free  from  the  insane  diathesis 
can  pass  with  mind  unshaken  and  uncon- 
scious of  any  danger  through  all  the  crises  of 
life,  whether  brought  on  by  outside  events  or 
by  the  changes  that  occur  in  the  body  at 
certain  special  epochs.  It  should  be  noted 
that  to  speak  of  the  definite  presence  or 
absence  of  the  insane  diathesis  is  incorrect, 
for  the  mental  instability  which  is  denoted  by 
this  term  occurs  in  varying  degrees.  In  some 
cases  the  mind  is  fairly  stable,  and  then  it 
takes  much  to  unbalance  it;  in  others  a  less 
severe  strain  is  needed ;  while  in  others  again 
it  gives  way  at  the  first  test. 

Of  the  crises  which  arise  naturally  in  the 
normal  life  of  the  individual,  puberty  comes 
first  in  order,  and  takes  its  toll  of  the  mentally 
unstable.  The  women  who  pass  safely  through 
this  period  are  severely  tested  by  child- 
bearing,  and  many  fail.  For  both  men  and 
women,  the  climacteric,  or  the  close  of  sexual 
life,  is  a  time  of  danger,  through  which  all  who 
live  to  reach  it  must  pass.  Among  abnormal- 
conditions  which  have  a  disturbing  influence, 
mental  stress,  whether  sudden  or  prolonged, 
is  one  of  the  most  important;  it  affects  women 
more  than  men.  Intemperance  in  alcohol, 
which  is  in  many  cases  considered  the 
principal  factor  in  an  attack  of  insanity, 
appears  to  send  many  more  men  than  women 
into    the    asylums.     The    same   is   true   of 


EUGENICS  169 

injuries  and  accidents.  The  particular  symp- 
toms by  which  the  insanity  manifests  itself 
appear  to  depend  partly  on  its  cause,  partly 
on  the  age  at  which  it  occurs,  and  partly 
on  the  predisposition  of  the  individual. 
That  the  last  statement  is  true  is  indicated 
by  the  fact  that  particular  forms  of  insanity 
appear  to  run  in  families. 

From  the  point  of  view  of  Eugenics,  the 
most  dangerous  form  is  recurrent  insanity. 
Patients  suffering  from  it  have  sometimes 
had  as  many  as  twenty  attacks;  they  have 
been  admitted  twenty  times  and  more  into  the 
asylums,  and  each  time,  after  a  few  months, 
discharged  as  'cured.'  In  their  sane  inter- 
vals some  of  them  have  had  many  children. 
There  is  one  case  on  record  in  which  such  a 
man  has  begotten  six  more  of  the  same  kind. 

General  paralysis  of  the  insane  affords  an 
exception  to  much  of  what  has  been  said 
above.  It  is  now  recognised  as  a  possible 
sequel  to  a  particular  contagious  disease, 
and  it  occurs  in  no  other  way.  There  is  no 
evidence  that  hereditary  predisposition  plays 
any  part  in  its  causation. 

The  prevalence  of  insanity  throughout  the 
country  is  a  matter  of  very  serious  import, 
and  the  fact  that  it  has  been  increasing  at 
a  relatively  higher  rate  than  the  population 
has  given  rise  to  much  alarm  in  many 
quarters.  But  while  the  matter  should  not 
be  put  aside  with  careless   optimism,  there 


170  EUGENICS 

are  some  reasons  for  the  belief  that  much  of 
the  increase  is  apparent  rather  than  real. 
These  reasons  which  have  been  clearly  stated 
by  Dr  Mott,  ^  may  be  summarised  as  follows : — 
In  the  first  place,  the  standard  of  sanity  has 
been  raised.  In  London  particularly  the 
special  schools  for  the  feeble-minded  serve 
as  a  collecting  agency,  and  more  or  less 
harmless  idiots  who  would  formerly  have  lived 
at  large  are  now  confined  in  asylums.  Further, 
the  accommodation  for  lunatics  has  been 
doubled  in  the  county  of  London  during  the 
last  twelve  years,  and,  in  consequence, 
patients,  who  before  that  would  have  been 
discharged  as  cured  to  make  room  for  urgent 
cases,  are  kept  for  longer  in  the  asylums. 

Secondly,  improved  sanitation  has  had 
a  marked  influence  in  the  death-rate  in 
asylums.  Where  formerly  large  numbers  of 
cases  died  young  of  tuberculosis  and  dysentery 
and  pneumonia,  a  much  smaller  number  do 
so  now,  and  many  of  those  who  escape  live 
to  a  fair  age  as  chronic  incurable  cases. 

Thirdly,  a  number  of  aged  people  suffering 
from  senile  decay,  who  used  in  former  years 
to  live  in  workhouse  infirmaries,  are  now 
certified  as  lunatics  and  sent  to  the  asylums. 
The  fact  that  the  Government  pays  the 
guardians    4s.    per    week    for    each    pauper 

»F.  W.  Mott,  F.R.S.,  Heredity  and  Eugenics  in 
Relation  to  Insanity.    Read  before  the  Eugenics  Congress, 


EUGENICS  ITl 

lunatic  is  an  inducement  to  them  to  send 
them. 

Mental  deficiency,  or  Amentia,  is  dis- 
tinguished from  other  forms  of  mental 
disease  or  deformity  in  being  commonly 
congenital.  It  is  defined  by  Dr  Tredgold* 
as  being  'that  state  in  which  the  mind  has 
failed  to  reach  normal  development.*  As 
this  definition  raises  the  difficult  question 
as  to  what  is  normal  development,  he  gives 
as  an  amended  form  the  following — Amentia 
is  *a  state  of  mental  defect  from  birth,  or 
from  an  early  age,  due  to  incomplete  cerebral 
development,  in  consequence  of  which  the 
person  affected  is  unable  to  perform  his 
duties  as  a  member  of  society  in  the  position 
of  life  to  which  he  was  born.' 

Three  degrees  of  Amentia  are  distinguished  : 
Idiocy,  Imbecility,  and  Feeble-mindedness. 
Idiots  are  persons  'so  deeply  defective  in 
mind  from  birth,  or  from  an  early  age,  that 
they  are  unable  to  guard  themselves  against 
common  physical  dangers.'  Imbeciles  can 
do  this,  but  cannot  earn  their  living,  while  the 
feeble-minded  can,  under  favourable  circum- 
stances, become  self-supporting,  but  cannot 
*  compete  on  equal  terms  with  their  normal 
fellows,  or  manage  themselves  or  their  affairs 
with  ordinary  prudence.' 

Tredgold  estimates  the  number  of  mentally 
defective  persons  in  England  and  Wales  to 

»A.  F.  Tredgold,  Mental  Deficiency  {Amenfia).    1908. 


172  EUGENICS 

be  about  four  per  thousand  of  the  whole 
community.  Of  these  about  ten  per  cent, 
are  idiots,  thirty  per  cent,  imbeciles,  arid 
sixty  per  cent,  feeble-minded.  Both  on 
account  of  their  far  greater  numbers,  and 
because  they  are  free  to  conduct  their  own 
affairs  in  whatever  manner  pleases  them, 
though  unable  to  do  so  'with  ordinary  pru- 
dence,' the  feeble-minded  constitute  a 
greater  danger  to  the  community  than  do 
the  idiots  or  imbeciles.  These,  by  reason  of 
their  greater  incapacity,  are  for  the  most 
part  under  confinement  or  some  control 
which  prevents  them  from  inflicting  damage 
on  themselves  or  others,  or  from  propagating 
their  like. 

From  the  feeble-minded  the  majority  of 
the  inmates  of  Inebriate  Reformatories  and 
a  large  proportion  of  the  migratory  popula- 
tion of  prisons  and  'Rescue  Homes'  are 
drawn.  Educated  at  great  expense  to  the 
community,  while  still  young  they  are  turned 
adrift  into  the  world,  and  their  instincts  and 
appetites,  which  are  often  perverted  and 
never  less  strong  than  those  of  normal  people, 
lead  them  into  temptations  against  which 
their  mental  equipment  of  judgment  or  self- 
control  is  wholly  inadequate  to  guard  them. 
Their  natural  defects  are  not  such  as  to 
render  them  distasteful  as  mates  either  to 
one  another  or  to  many  of  those  who  are 
technically  normal,  neither  are  they  usually 


EUGENICS  178 

deficient  in  fertility;  so  through  legitimate 
and  illegitimate  unions  they  add  their  quota 
to  the  ranks  of  those  who  are  a  blessing  neither 
to  themselves  nor  others. 

Owing  to  the  fact  that  amentia  is  by 
definition  a  defect  which  is  either  congenital 
or  arises  very  early  in  life,  the  influence  of 
heredity  as  a  factor  in  its  causation  is  hardly 
open  to  question.  That  environmental  con- 
ditions may  sometimes  be  responsible  is  the 
extreme  length  to  which  those  can  go  who 
would  emphasise  the  iniportance  of  external 
factors,  while  preserving  some  regard  for 
the  truth.  The  environmental  conditions 
must  necessarily  be  those  which  operate 
either  before,  during,  or  immediately  after 
birth.  Among  these,  parental  alcoholism  is 
regarded  by  many  as  the  most  important. 
This  has  been  thought  to  act  either  on  the 
germplasm  before  conception,  or  directly  on 
the  unborn  child  during  its  prenatal  life. 
A  'priori  considerations  might  well  lead  one 
to  believe  that  alcohol  circulating  in  the 
mother's  blood  and  transfusing  thence  into 
the  vessels  of  the  child  might  well  modify  in 
a  harmful  manner  the  rapid  process  of  growth 
and  tissue  differentiation  which  it  is  imder- 
going,  with  the  result  that  normal  develop- 
ment of  mind  and  body  is  prevented.  It  is 
also  not  incredible  that  a  somewhat  similar 
result  might  be  obtained  by  the  action  of  the 
alcohol  in  the  germplasm  itself.    But  direct 


1T4  EUGENICS 

evidence  of  a  convincing  kind  as  to  the  exact 
effects  of  either  of  these  supposed  methods  of 
action  seems  to  be  extremely  difficult  to 
obtain;  although  much  sought,  it  has  not 
yet  been  found. 

Of  the  other  external  conditions,  injuries 
to  the  brain  before,  during,  or  after  birth  are 
probably  in  a  small  percentage  of  cases  the 
cause  of  amentia.  Tredgold  says  concerning 
such  cases  :  *  It  is  probable  that  rupture  of 
vessels  has  taken  place,  leading  to  the  destruc- 
tion of  a  localised  area  of  brain  tissue,  and 
in  most  of  these  patients  the  amentia  is 
accompanied  by  epilepsy  or  paralysis.* 
Among  the  other  factors,  he  attaches  most 
weight  to  the  action  of  acute  infectious 
diseases  occurring  in  infancy. 

But  direct  inheritance  undoubtedly  plays 
a  far  greater  part  in  the  production  of  feeble- 
mindedness than  the  sum  total  of  contributing 
and  alternative  causes.  Recent  work  carried 
out  under  the  auspices  of  the  American 
Eugenics  Record  Office^  suggests  that  a 
Mendelian  interpretation  can  be  put  upon 
the  facts;  indeed  Dr  Davenport  and  Dr 
Weeks  appear  to  do  so  without  doubt  or 
hesitation. 

The  basic  hypothesis  of  these  authors  is, 
that  for  normal  mental  develpoment  it  is 

^C.  B.  Davenport  and  D.  F.  Weeks,  A  First  Study 
on  Inheritance  in  Epilepsy.  D.  F.  Weeks,  The  Inheritance 
of  Epilepsy,  read  before  the  Eugenics  Congress,  1912. 


EUGENICS  175 

necessary  that  a  particular  determining 
factor  should  be  present  in  the  zygote.  The 
factor  is  transmitted  in  a  Mendelian  way, 
and  where  it  is  absent  epilepsy  or  feeble- 
mindedness appear.  The  simplex^  individuals 
(whose  zygotes  contained  the  factor  singly) 
may  either  appear  normal  or  have  an  inter- 
mediate mental  status,  which  renders  them 
sometimes  alcoholic,  sometimes  neurotic,  and 
sometimes  in  some  other  way  abnormal 
without  being  actually  epileptic  or  feeble- 
minded. To  be  thoroughly  normal  one  must 
be  duplex  and  have  the  factor  present  twice 
over.  If  this  hypothesis  is  correct,*  the 
children  produced  by  two  feeble-minded 
parents,  or  by  two  epileptic  parents,  or  when 
one  is  feeble-minded  and  the  other  epileptic, 
should  all  be  tainted  with  one  or  other  of  these 
two  defects.  Where  one  is  normal  (duplex) 
and  the  other  feeble-minded,  the  offspring 
should  all  be  simplex  and  possess  the  'inter- 
mediate status,'  or  appear  normal.  When 
both  are  simplex,  one-quarter  should  be  truly 
normal,  one-quarter  epileptic  or  feeble- 
minded, and  the  other  half  simplex.  Simplex 
mated  with  normal  should  give  one-half 
normal  children  and  the  other  half  simplex, 
and  simplex  mated  with  epileptic  or  feeble- 
minded should  give  one-half  simplex  and  the 
other  half  epileptic  or  feeble-minded.    When 

*  For  the  Mendelian  Theory,  vide  Chapter  V. 

9  It  has  recently  been  much  modified  by  Dr.  Davenport 


176  EUGENICS 

both  parents  are  normal  (duplex)  their 
children  should  all  resemble  them  in  this 
respect. 

The  material  analysed  by  Dr  Weeks  and 
Dr  Davenport  consisted  of  the  pedigrees  of 
inhabitants  of  the  New  Jersey  State  Village 
for  Epileptics  at  Skillman.  Their  collection 
was  an  arduous  and  valuable  piece  of  work, 
performed  by  Mrs  Woodward  and  Miss  Devitt 
of  the  Eugenics  Record  Office.  The  actual 
results  obtained  agree  only  just  well  enough 
with  the  expectation  deduced  from  the 
suggested  hypothesis  to  render  the  latter 
provisionally  tenable.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that 
future  work  may  confirm  and  extend  it. 
Extension  is  necessary  because  the  theory 
is  incomplete — even  if  it  should  be  eventually 
accepted  without  reserve — both  as  a  true 
explanation  of  the  facts  and  as  a  reliable 
guide  for  the  prediction  of  the  offspring  to 
be  expected  from  marriages  in  which  one  or 
more  epileptics  or  feeble-minded  persons  are 
concerned.  Its  defect  is  that  the  two  con- 
ditions which  are  very  different  in  their 
symptoms,  and  may  occur  separately  or  in 
conjunction,  are  put  into  one  class,  and  no 
account  is  taken  of  the  degrees  of  severity  in 
which  each  may  be  present. 

The  difference  between  the  theoretical 
expectation  and  the  actual  facts  found  con- 
sists principally  in  an  excess  of  feeble-minded 
or  epileptic  children  recorded  in  the  pedigrees. 


EUGENICS  177 

Dr  Weeks  endeavours  to  bring  hypothesis 
and  fact  into  better  agreement  by  tenta- 
tively attributing  this  excess  to  parental 
alcoholism. 

The  results  of  this  research  emphasises  the 
importance  of  preventing,  in  whatever  manner 
may  be  practicable  without  being  harsh  or 
unjust,  the  reproduction  of  epileptics  and 
feeble-minded  persons.  Among  the  feeble- 
minded more  than  in  any  other  class  the 
tendency  for  like  to  mate  with  like  must  be 
a  strong  one,  and  where  this  occurs  there 
seems  little  reason  to  suppose  that  healthy  or 
normal  offspring  can  be  expected.  Even 
where  one  mate  is  a  normal  the  offspring  are 
not  completely  so,  so  that  when  they  in  their 
turn  form  unions  with  others  of  their  own 
class,  three-quarters  of  their  children  may  be 
to  some  extent  defective.  Such  unions  are 
not  so  unlikely  to  occur  that  their  probable 
results  can  be  looked  on  with  equanimity. 

A  fact  of  great  importance,  and  one  which 
tends  to  simplify  the  practical  problems 
confronting  the  Eugenist,  is  that  the  harmful 
predispositions  or  inborn  deficiencies  dis- 
cussed in  this  chapter  are  apparently  not 
independent  one  from  another.  A  family  in 
which  one  in  common  is  less  likely  to  be  free 
from  the  others,  and  its  members  are  often 
in  other  ways  degenerate,  being  either 
addicted  to  alcohol,  imable  to  earn  a  living,  or 
prone    to    become    vagabonds,    prostitutes. 


178  EUGENICS 

or  criminals.  Thus  by  placing  the  feeble- 
minded under  care  of  a  kind  which  prevents 
them  propagating,  one  would  not  only  do 
something  to  exterminate  feeble-mindedness, 
but  one  would  at  the  same  time  be  dealing 
a  blow  at  tuberculosis,  drunkenness,  pauper- 
ism, prostitution,  and  criminality. 

There  are  many  other  defects,  such  as 
deaf-mutism  and  some  forms  of  eye  disease, 
which  are  hereditary  in  their  nature,  and 
place  a  serious  handicap  on  those  who  suffer 
from  them.  In  regard  to  all,  the  part  played 
in  their  causation  by  the  marriages  of  near 
kin  has  for  many  years  aroused  discussion. 
Public  opinion  has  been  generally  set  against 
marriages  of  first  cousins,  but  little  evidence 
has  been  recorded  to  support  it.  If  the  two 
cousins  who  marry  are  entirely  free  from 
latent  defects,  there  does  not  seem  to  be  any 
ground  for  supposing  that  their  children  are 
more  likely  to  be  defective  than  those  of 
people  imconnected  by  close  kinship.  But 
it  is  almost  impossible  to  say  definitely  that 
no  latent  defect  is  present.  Where  the  same 
abnormality  exists  in  the  germplasm  of  both 
partners,  it  is  more  likely  that  their  children 
will  be  affected,  than  if  the  defect  present  on 
the  one  side  is  different  to  that  on  the  other. 
The  latent  characters  of  cousins  are  much 
more  likely  to  be  similar  than  those  of  two 
imrelated  persons,  so  it  follows  that,  on  the 
whole,  it  is  safer  for  cousins  not  to  inter- 


EUGENICS  17» 

marry.  This  conclusion  can  be  more  strongly- 
insisted  on  when  the  presence  of  some  par- 
ticular latent  defect  is  suspected. 

SUMMARY   OF   CHAPTER 

It  is  generally  admitted  that  tuberculosis 
tends  to  run  in  particular  families.  This  was 
formerly  attributed  entirely  to  heredity,  but 
now  many  people  say  that  it  is  due  entirely 
to  infection.  There  is  some  evidence  that  it 
is  due  to  the  infection  of  persons  who  have 
been  provided  through  inheritance  with  a 
very  low  power  of  resistance  against  the 
attacks  of  the  microbes  which  cause  the 
disease.  Parents  are  as  likely  to  infect  one 
another  as  to  infect  their  children,  yet  the 
correlation  between  parents  and  children  is 
undoubtedly  much  higher  than  between 
husband  and  wife.  The  inheritance  of  the 
tubercular  diathesis  is  the  most  reasonable 
explanation  of  the  difference. 

Insanity  is  also  caused  partly  by  the 
external  conditions  and  partly  by  the  natural 
tendency,  and  in  this  case  there  is  little  doubt 
that  the  tendency  is  inherited. 

In  the  causation  of  mental  deficiency  or 
amentia,  the  environment  acting  directly  on 
the  individual  probably  plays  a  smaller  part 
than  in  tuberculosis  or  insanity,  because 
amentia  is  congenital,  or  is  set  up  very 
soon  after  birth.  Its  hereditary  nature  is 
therefore    more    obvious,  and   the   work   of 


180  EUGENICS 

Dr  Davenport  and  Dr  Weeks  shows  that 
feeble-mindedness  and  epilepsy  may  perhaps 
be  inherited  in  a  Mendelian  way. 

Some  of  the  problems  in  Eugenics  are 
simplified  by  reason  of  the  fact  that  all  these 
defects  and  some  others  tend  to  occur  in  the 
same  stocks. 

Lastly,  the  view  now  generally  accepted  as 
to  the  dangers  of  marriages  between  cousins 
is  discussed. 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE  INFLUENCE   OF  THE   ENVIRONMENT 

Every  part  of  any  hmnan  body,  whether  it 
be  an  organ  present  in  all  mankind  or  the 
peculiarity  of  one  or  a  few  individuals,  every 
habit  of  body  or  mind,  every  form  of  skill, 
every  faculty  and  every  disease  is  guided  in  its 
develpoment  directly  or  indirectly  by  the 
nature  of  the  germplasm  and  by  the  external 
conditions  through  which  the  individual  is 
passing  or  has  passed.  If  some  characters, 
such  as  the  colour  of  the  eyes,  appear  to  be 
wholly  unaffected  by  the  environment,  it 
is  because  the  external  conditions  which 
permit  their  development  are  so  varied  as 
to  include  almost  all  those  in  which  life  itself 
is  possible.  If  others,  such  as  a  scar  on  the 
cheek,  appear  to  depend  wholly  on  external 
influence,  it  is  because  they  are  represented 


EUGENICS  181 

potentially  in  every  zygote,  but  actually 
develop  only  under  certain  well-marked 
conditions. 

The  joint  action  of  nature  and  nurture  is 
obvious  in  most  cases,  and  in  many  it  is 
difficult  to  say  to  which  should  be  attri- 
buted the  preponderant  influence.  Galton's 
classical  study  of  the  resemblances  and 
differences  exhibited  by  twins  was  an 
attempt  to  find  a  general  solution  of  this 
problem.  By  assiduous  correspondence  he 
collected  much  information  concerning  a 
hundred  pairs  of  twins,  and  he  found  that 
they  fell  naturally  into  two  discontinuous^ 
groups  according  to  the  degree  of  likeness 
between  the  members  of  a  pair.  In  the  one, 
each  twin  resembled  its  fellow  very  closely 
from  infancy  upwards  in  a  great  many  ways, 
and  the  two  were  always  of  the  same  sex. 
In  the  second  the  sex  was  sometimes  the  same 
and  sometimes  different,  and  there  were  often 
remarkable  contrasts  in  body  and  mind. 
The  twins  of  both  groups  were  naturally 
exposed  as  they  grew  up  and  went  out  into 
the  world  to  conditions  which,  from  being 
almost  identical,  became  more  and  more 
different.  Of  those  who  showed  so  great  a 
resemblance  in  early  childhood  some  diverged 
to  a  certain  extent  from  one  another,  but 


*  Groups  are  called  discontinuous  when  they  dt  not 
shade  by  insensible  gradations  into  one  another,  •tut 
are  quite  distinct. 


182  EUGENICS 

others  maintained  a  close  similarity  through- 
out life — a  similarity  which  often  extended 
from  personal  appearance  to  mental  charac- 
teristics and  to  the  liability  to  various  diseases. 
Galton  sums  this  up  as  follows  : — '  We  have 
seen  that  a  few  twins  retain  their  close 
resemblance  through  life;  in  other  words, 
instances  do  exist  of  an  apparently  thorough 
similarity  of  nature,  in  which  such  difference 
of  external  circumstances  as  may  be  consistent 
with  the  ordinary  conditions  of  the  same 
social  rank  arid  country  do  not  create  dis- 
similarity. Positive  evidence  such  as  this 
cannot  be  outweighed  by  any  amount  of 
negative  evidence.*  Even  the  divergence 
which  occurred  in  some  cases  is  not  neces- 
sarily entirely  the  result  of  external  condi- 
tions; it  may  be  due  to  some  extent  to  innate 
differences  manifesting  themselves  late  in  life. 
If  the  action  of  the  environment  were  very 
powerful,  it  should  be  clearly  shown  in  the 
case  of  the  dissimilar  twins,  by  their  becoming 
more  and  more  alike,  when  exposed  during 
childhood  to  almost  identical  conditions. 
That  this  was  far  from  happening  is  shown  by 
the  collected  evidence,  of  which  the  following 
is  a  sample  : — *  One  parent  says  :  "  They  have 
had  exactly  the  same  nurture  from  their 
birth  up  to  the  present  time;  they  are  both 
perfectly  healthy  and  strong,  yet  they  are 
otherwise  as  dissimilar  as  two  boys  could  be, 
physically,  mentally,  and  in  their  emotional 


EUGENICS  188 

nature."  According  to  another  parent,  the 
twins  are  "Very  dissimilar  in  body  and 
mind :  the  one  is  quiet,  retiring,  and  slow 
but  sure;  good-tempered,  but  disposed  to  be 
sulky  when  provoked; — the  other  is  quick, 
vivacious,  forward,  acquiring  easily  and  for- 
getting soon;  quick-tempered  and  choleric, 
but  quickly  forgiving  and  forgetting.  They 
have  been  educated  together  and  never 
separated.**  * 

There  is  much  more  to  the  same  effect, 
but  this  is  sufficient  to  support  the  argument,* 
which  maybe  briefly  recapitulated  as  follows: — 
The  twins  who  were  similar  in  childhood 
remained  in  many  cases  very  much  alike  in 
after  life,  although  exposed  to  different 
conditions.  Those  who  were  different  to  start 
with  remained  different,  although  subject 
in  childhood  to  almost  identical  conditions. 
Therefore  nurture  failed  in  the  one  case  to 
make  different  people  who  were  similar  by 
nature,  and  in  the  other  to  make  similar 
people  who  were  by  nature  different.  It 
follows  that  nurture  is  sometimes  at  any  rate 
less  powerful  than  nature. 

It  is  profitable  to  turn  from  a  rather  general 
treatment  of  the  question  such  as  /s  given 
above  to  detailed  studies  of  particular  points. 

Of  these,  two  of  the  most  important  have 

>  The  argument  will  be  recognised  as  taat  used  by 
Dr  Woods  many  years  later  in  discussing  heredity  in 
royal  personages.  It  is  quoted  in  Chapter  VII.  of  this 
volnme. 


184  EUGENICS 

been  made  respectively  by  Professor  Karl 
Pearson,  with  Miss  Barrington,  and  by  Dr 
David  Heron.  They  are  both  published 
among  the  memoirs  of  the  Galton  Eugenics 
Laboratory.  Professor  Pearson  and  Miss 
Barrington  deal  with  the  inheritance  of  vision 
and  the  relative  influence  of  heredity  and 
environment  in  sight.  Their  work  consists 
essentially  of  two  parts.  In  the  first,  statistical 
measures  of  resemblance  between  parents 
and  children,  and  between  children  of  the 
same  parents,  are  obtained  for  various  of  the 
commoner  defects  of  vision.  In  the  second, 
the  correlation  between  the  home  environ- 
ment of  school  children  and  the  state  of  their 
eyesight  is  estimated. 

Basing  the  first  part  of  their  work  largely 
on  records  made  by  the  Swiss  oculist,  Dr 
Adolf  Steiger,  they  found  a  high  degree  of 
correlation  between  parents  and  children, 
with  regard  to  the  degree  of  development  of 
corneal  astigmatism  and  refractive  errors. 
When  dealing  with  pairs  of  brothers  or  sisters, 
well-marked  similarity  in  the  condition  of  the 
eyesight  was  found  also,  and  the  results 
obtained  from  Steiger' s  material  were  cor- 
roborated by  much  which  came  from  quite 
other  sources.  The  actual  value  of  the 
correlation  coefficients  which  express  the 
degrees  of  similarity  referred  to  above  are 
not  given  here.  The  subject  is  one  of  so  much 
difficulty  that  the  whole  process  of  reasoning 


EUGENICS  185 

by  which  the  final  values  are  obtained  is  too 
elaborate  to  be  conveniently  summarised. 
It  is  enough  to  say  that  there  is  ample  justifi- 
cation for  the  conclusion  that  the  'physical 
characters  of  the  eye  are  hereditary  qualities,* 
and  some  basis  for  the  further  assertion  'that 
the  intensity  of  inheritance  is  probably 
exactly  the  same  as  that  for  other  physical 
characteristics  in  man.' 

The  study  of  pedigrees  confirms  the  general 
conclusion  that  the  condition  of  the  eyes  is 
apt  to  be  inherited,  and  shows  that  the  in- 
heritance of  some  of  the  rarer  defects  is 
Mendelian  in  its  nature. 

Professor  Pearson  and  Miss  Barrington 
used  for  the  second  part  of  their  work  the 
Report  on  the  physical  condition  of  fourteen 
hundred  school  children  in  the  city  (of 
Edinburgh),  with  some  account  of  their 
homes  and  surroundings^  published  by  the 
Edinburgh  Charity  Organisation  Society.  The 
home  environment  of  these  children  was 
classified — ^first,  according  to  the  number  of 
people  per  room;  secondly,  according  to  the 
economic  conditions,  judged  by  particulars 
as  to  wages  earned  and  such  other  facts  as 
would  enable  one  to  form  an  opinion  as  to 
how  poor  they  were ;  thirdly,  as  to  whether 
the  parents  were  in  good  physical  condition 
or  bad;  and  fourthly,  according  to  the  moral 
condition  of  the  parents,  judged  by  such 
particulars  as  were  available.  . 


186  EUGENICS 

The  eyesight  of  the  children  was  classified 
according  to  its  keenness,  or  to  what  refrac- 
tive faults,  if  any,  were  present.  But  what- 
ever classification  was  adopted,  either  of  the 
homes  or  of  the  children,  it  was  never  found 
that  defective  sight  was  associated  more 
with  a  bad  environment  than  with  a  good.^ 

In  this  case  at  any  rate,  then,  'Nature* 
plays  a  larger  part  than  'Nurture,'  as  repre- 
sented by  such  home  conditions  as  were 
investigated.  The  authors  of  the  memoir 
further  discuss  the  theory  that  school  is 
the  principal  cause  of  near  sight  or  myopia. 
This  theory  rests  largely  on  certain  statistics 
of  the  German  oculist  Cohn,  which  show  that 
the  degree  of  myopia  among  school  children 
increases  with  the  length  of  time  for  which 
they  are  at  school.  Working  with  Cohn's 
data,  Professor  Pearson  and  Miss  Barrington 
found  that  the  coefficient  of  correlation 
between  this  defect  and  the  length  of  school 
life  was  '244.  This  might  at  first  sight  appear 
to  be  a  demonstration  of  the  theory;  but, 
they  argue,  it  is  well  known  that,  quite  apart 
from  school  life,  children  grow  more  short- 
sighted as  they  grow  up,  and  it  must  be  the 
case  that  the  children  who  have  been  longest 

^  It  is  possible  that  a  good  .home  environment  and 
a  bad,  each  in  different  ways,  have  a  harmful  effect  on 
the  eyesight.  In  the  former,  the  children  would  be  likely 
to  stay  indoors  more  and  read,  or  otherwise  employ 
their  eyes  on  close  work;  in  the  latter,  by  poor  nutrition, 
bad  air,  and  so  oa. 


EUGENICS  187 

at  school  will  generally  be  the  older  ones. 
Therefore  the  increase  in  the  defect  apparently 
due  to  school  life  is  due  really  to  increasing 
age.  To  test  this,  using  the  same  data,  they 
calculated  the  coefficient  correlation  between 
degree  of  myopia  and  age,  and  found  it  to  be 
•331,  thus  showing  that  it  is  age  which  plays 
the  predominant  part. 

Dr  Heron's  work  on  the  Influence  of 
Defective  Physique  and  Unfavourable  Home 
Environment  on  the  Intelligence  of  School 
Children  is  based  on  a  survey  of  the  children 
in  fourteen  L.C.C.  schools,  which  was  set  on 
foot  by  Dr  Kerr,  the  medical  officer  of  the 
Education  Committee. 

The  children  were  divided  by  the  teachers 
in  each  of  the  schools  into  five  different  cate- 
gories of  Mental  Capacity.  One  of  the  chief 
difficulties  in  the  work  was  caused  by  the 
manner  in  which  this  grading  was  done.  In 
one  school  a  third  of  the  number  of  the  boys 
and  girls  were  classed  as  brilliant,  and  in 
another  a  thirtieth.  It  is  obvious  that  in 
the  former  the  word  must  have  been  used  in 
a  sense  very  different  to  that  in  which  one 
is  accustomed  to  use  it,  and,  what  is  more  to 
the  point,  very  different  from  that  in  which  it 
was  used  in  the  latter.  In  order  to  get  over 
the  difficulty  thus  introduced,  it  was  necessary 
to  do  the  statistical  calculations  for  each 
school  separately.  The  other  characters  which 
were  measured  or  estimated  in  one  way  or 


188  EUGENICS 

another  and  correlated  with  intelligence  were 
weight  and  height,  condition  of  clothing  and 
teeth,  state  of  nutrition,  cleanliness,  and  the 
condition  of  the  cervical  glands,  tonsils,  and 
adenoids,  and  the  power  of  hearing.  But  from 
the  results  obtained  it  could  not  be  shown 
that  mental  capacity  depended  to  any  appreci- 
able extent  on  any  of  the  other  characters 
dealt  with.  The  character  most  closely 
associated  with  intelligence  was  the  state  of 
the  clothing  in  girls.  The  brighter  girls  were 
undoubtedly  better  dressed  than  the  rest; 
but,  taking  the  other  facts  into  consideration, 
it  is  more  reasonable  to  suppose  that  their 
comparatively  tidy  and  well-kept  costumes 
were  due  to  their  greater  cleverness  than  that 
both  were  the  result  of  their  coming  from 
better  homes.  In  boys,  mental  superiority 
exhibited  itself  more  markedly  in  personal 
cleanliness  than  in  the  state  of  their  garments. 
But  the  relation  was  not  such  a  close  one  as 
between  clothing  and  intelligence  in  girls. 

It  cannot  be  claimed  that  the  researches 
which  have  been  briefly  described  go  far  to 
settle  the  general  question  as  to  the  relative 
influence  of  nature  and  nurture.  That  is 
a  problem  for  which  no  general  solution  can 
be  found.  They  do  not  even  go  far  towards 
answering  the  more  particular  questions  as 
to  how  far  the  state  of  the  eyesight  and  the 
intelligence  of  children  depend  on  the  con- 
ditions  under   which   they   are   brought   up. 


EUGENICS  189 

Conditions  not  dealt  with  in  the  memoirs 
quoted  may  have  a  far  greater  influence  than 
tnose  which  have  been  investigated;  but  even 
if  this  is  the  case,  the  authors  cannot  be 
blamed  for  it,  as  the  limitations  of  their 
material  hemmed  them  in  at  all  points.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  great  merit  is  theirs  of 
leading  the  way  in  the  application  of  exact 
statistical  methods  to  these  difficult  problems, 
as  well  as  of  obtaining  results  which  are 
themselves  of  some  considerable  value  as 
far  as  they  go.  The  relatively  quick  and 
certain  method  of  direct  experiment  is  not 
available  for  the  study  of  mankind,  so  the 
investigator  must  rely  either  on  statistics  or 
on  arguments  from  analogy.  By  statistics 
rightly  applied  he  may  cut  his  way  through 
the  thick  jungle  of  confusing  details,  over- 
shadowed and  obscured  by  ignorance  and 
prejudice,  and,  moving  laboriously  step  by 
step,  at  last  map  out  the  features  of  the  un- 
known land.  But  quick  progress  under 
these  conditions  must  not  be  expected  from 
him,  and  some  false  starts  are  almost  inevi- 
table. 

There  are  one  or  two  fields  in  which  there 
is  some  general  experience  of  the  effects  of 
nurture,  and  these  must  be  examined  before 
leaving  the  subject.  It  is  well  known  that  by 
developing  a  group  of  muscles  with  special 
exercises  they  grow  stronger  and  larger,  but 
they   do   not  go   on   increasing   indefinitely; 


190  EUGENICS 

after  a  time  a  point  is  reached  at  which  all 
that  exercise  can  do  is  to  keep  them  in  con- 
dition. Similarly  with  regard  to  skill  of  some 
particular  kind,  like  that  required  for  playing 
golf;  a  point  is  reached  at  which  further  im- 
provement seems  impossible,  even  with  the 
best  of  tuition  and  all  the  practice  that  is 
good  for  one.  After  a  time  even  the  best 
professional  comes  to  a  standstill;  his  drives 
do  not  become  straighter  or  longer,  or  his 
mashie  shots  more  accurate.  With  race-horses 
a  corresponding  limit  is  reached;  training 
appears  to  make  an  enormous  difference  up 
to  a  certain  point,  but  beyond  that  point  is 
powerless  to  increase  their  speed.  A  parallel 
case  is  found  in  the  candidates  for  an  examina- 
tion leading  to  some  valuable  prize — for 
instance,  the  Civil  Service.  They  may  not 
all  be  crammed  to  quite  the  same  degree,  but 
many  of  them  have  been  trained  to  the 
limit;  yet  the  marks  show  the  most  enormous 
differences  between  the  first  few  candidates. 
Similarly  among  race-horses,  some  descend 
to  the  cab  rank,  while  others  may  earn  an 
annual  income  about  double  that  of  a  cabinet 
minister.  Professional  golfers  are  constantly 
competing  one  against  the  other,  both  in  the 
open  championship  and  in  other  competitions, 
yet  one  or  two  may  head  the  list  again  and 
again;  and  finally,  among  those  who  practise 
the  cult  of  the  dumb-bell  to  an  equal  extent 
some  acquire  the  muscular  development  of 


EUGENICS  191 

a  Sandow,  while  others  retain  the  proportions 
of  ordinary  mortals. 

All  these  cases  show  that  nurture  has  some 
power  to  mould  the  individual,  but  that  nature 
says  the  last  word.  They  all  exaggerate  the 
apparent  effect  of  nurture  in  the  following 
way.  When  one  sees  the  feats  performed  by 
the  highly  trained  man  or  beast,  one  is  apt 
to  compare  them  with  the  achievements  of 
the  imtrained  and  attribute  the  difference 
to  training,  yet  training  is  only  given  to  the 
naturally  apt,  so  the  difference  must  be 
largely  due  in  reality  to  the  natural  aptitude. 

From  a  consideration  of  racial  stature 
limits,  the  same  sort  of  conclusions  may  be 
drawn.  There  is  hardly  a  doubt  that  stature 
is  influenced  by  good  and  bad  conditions; 
but  the  average  stature  of  races  living  imder 
conditions  not  markedly  different  may  be 
very  great. 

The  point  need  not  be  laboured  further. 
Galton  illumines  the  question  of  'nature  and 
nurture'  with  the  following  parable,  which 
contains  a  large  measure  of  truth  : — *  Many 
a  person  has  amused  himself  with  throwing 
bits  of  stick  into  a  tiny  brook  and  watching 
their  progress;  how  they  are  arrested,  first 
by  one  chance  obstacle  then  by  another; 
and  again,  how  their  onward  course  is  facili- 
tated by  a  combination  of  circumstances. 
He  might  ascribe  much  importance  to  each 
of  these  events  and  think  how  largely  the 


192  EUGENICS 

destiny  of  the  stick  has  been  governed  by 
a  series  of  trifling  accidents.  Nevertheless, 
all  the  sticks  succeed  in  passing  down  the 
current,  and  in  the  long  run  they  travel  at 
nearly  the  same  rate.  So  it  is  with  life  in 
respect  to  the  several  accidents  which  seem 
to  have  a  great  effect  on  our  careers.  The  one 
element  which  varies  in  different  individuals, 
but  is  constant  in  each  of  them,  is  the  natural 
tendency;  it  corresponds  to  the  current  in 
the  stream,  and  invariably  asserts  itself.' 

If  it  is  difficult  to  tell  how  much  influence 
on  the  individual  may  be  exercised  by  the 
environment  acting  on  him  directly  during 
his  lifetime,  it  is  much  harder  to  estimate 
what  may  have  been  its  action  previous  to 
his  birth.  The  latter  is  a  problem  with  three 
main  divisions,  each  quite  distinct  from  the 
others.  In  considering  what  these  are,  one 
must  bear  clearly  in  mind  the  distinction 
drawn  between  the  soma  or  body  and  the 
germplasm  which  lives,  as  it  were  like  a 
guest,  within  the  body.  It  will  be  remembered 
that  each  individual  {vide  Chapter  V.)  is 
formed  from  a  zygote  made  up  by  a  portion 
of  the  germplasm  contained  in  each  parent, 
and  that  early  in  the  development  of  the 
zygote  a  certain  part  of  the  germplasm  is  set 
aside  unchanged  with  regard  to  its  essential 
nature;  from  this  the  gametes  are  formed 
from  which  the  next  generation  springs, 
while    the    rest    controls    the    growth    and 


EUGENICS  193 

differentiation  of  the  various  parts  of  the 
body  or  soma. 

Now  the  first  question  is  :  Can  any  changes 
produced  in  the  soma  of  a  parent  by  accident, 
by  the  special  exercise  of  any  particular 
organ,  or  through  any  of  the  other  channels 
through  which  the  environment  may  act  on 
the  individual,  so  influence  the  germplasm 
from  which  the  offspring  of  that  particular 
parent  will  be  partly  derived,  that  the  same 
changes  will  reappear  in  it?  In  other  words, 
are  mutilations,  the  effects  of  disease  or  of 
use  or  disuse,  of  climate  or  nutrition,  and 
so  on,  inherited? 

The  second  question  is  :  Can  the  environ- 
ment act  on  the  germplasm  directly  or  through 
the  medimn  of  the  parental  soma  so  as  to 
change  it  in  such  a  way  that  the  soma  of  the 
offspring  develops  in  a  different  manner  to 
that  in  which  it  otherwise  would?  The 
difference  between  the  two  questions  can  be 
illustrated  by  reference  to  a  special  case. 
Suppose  a  man,  in  consequence  of  habitual 
drunkenness,  to  develop  cirrhosis  of  the  liver, 
and  afterwards  to  have  children.  If  the  first 
question  could  be  answered  in  the  affirmative, 
his  children  would  have  a  good  chance  of 
developing  cirrhosis  of  the  liver  without 
drinking  at  all.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  it 
must  be  answered  in  the  negative,  then  they 
would  be  no  more  likely  to  suffer  from  the 
disease   than    if    their   father   had    been   a 


194  EUGENICS 

teetotaller.  If  the  second  question  is  stated  in 
the  terms  of  this  special  case,  it  would  run 
more  or  less  as  follows  : — Can  the  alcohol 
circulating  in  the  father's  veins  and  thus 
penetrating  to  all  parts  of  the  body  poison 
the  germplasm  in  such  a  manner  that  when 
the  paternal  gamete  fertilises  the  maternal 
the  zygote  is  not  able  to  develop  quite  nor- 
mally, and  some  defect  of  mind  or  body  in 
the  offspring  results? 

The  third  question  deals  with  the  influences 
acting  on  the  individual  in  his  prenatal  life. 
To  what  extent  will  his  chances  in  life  be 
affected  by  the  acts,  habits,  and  circumstances 
of  his  mother  during  her  pregnancy? 

The  first  question  may  be  dismissed  very 
briefly.  The  bulk  of  scientific  opinion  is  so 
opposed  to  the  idea  that  modifications  pro- 
duced in  the  parental  soma  by  the  action  of 
the  environment  can  be  inherited,  and  the 
evidence  in  favour  collected  up  to  the  present 
is  so  slight  and  so  much  open  to  criticism  that 
a  negative  answer  may  be  given  with  as 
much  certainty  as  can  be  attained  in  questions 
of  this  kind. 

Such  a  definite  opinion  cannot  be  expressed 
with  regard  to  the  action  of  the  environment 
on  the  germplasm.  Some  of  the  more  strenu- 
ous temperance  reformers  have  collected 
data  from  which  they  deduce  arguments  to 
show  that  the  germplasm  may  be  poisoned  by 
alcohol,  in  such  a  way  that  the  children  of 


EUGENICS  195 

intemperate  parents  are  more  likely  to  be 
feeble-minded  or  lacking  in  bodily  vigour 
than  they  would  have  been  if  the  parents  had 
been  more  moderate.  Others  go  even  further, 
and  assert  that  even  moderate  and  abstemious 
consumers  of  alcoholic  beverages  exercise  by 
these  habits  a  deleterious  influence  on  theit 
children.  What  they  say  may  be  true  or  it 
may  not;  but  when  the  reasoning  on  which 
the  assertions  are  made  is  subjected  to  a 
critical  examination^  so  many  fallacies  can 
be  detected  in  it,  that  no  weight  whatever 
can  be  attached  to  the  conclusions.  The 
cause  of  temperance  rests  on  so  firm  a  basis 
that  it  cannot  be  permanently  damaged  by 
any  form  of  mis-statement;  but  if  one  thing 
rather  than  another  tends  to  weaken  it,  it 
is  the  emphatic  but  unproved  assertion  of 
some  of  its  more  zealous  supporters,  that 
parental  alcoholism,  through  its  action  on 
the  germplasm,  is  the  direct  cause  of  feeble- 
mindedness, insanity,  and  degeneration  of 
various  kinds  in  the  offspring.  The  general 
question,  if  not  the  specific  influence  of 
alcohol,  can  be  more  profitably  studied  by 
experiments  on  the  lower  animals.  By  well- 
devised   experiments   it  is   always   easier  to 

*  Such  a  critical  examination  is  made  in  Professor 
Pearson  and  Miss  Elderton's  Second  Study  of  the  Influence 
of  Parental  Alcoholism  on  the  Physique  and  Ability  of  the 
Offspring.  Eugenics  Laboratory  Memoirs  XIII.  The 
reader  interested  in  the  question  is  referred  to  this  memoir, 
which,  he  will  see,  is  impossible  to  analyse  satisfactorily 
ia  this  volume. 


196  EUGENICS 

obtain  a  definite  answer  more  quickly  than 
by  the  observation  of  very  complicated 
phenomena.  And  though  a  completely  open 
mind  may  be  as  rare  among  scientists  as 
among  politicians  or  social  reformers,  yet 
the  affairs  of  mice  and  beetles  are  less  apt  to 
be  misinterpreted  through  prejudice  or 
Jesuitically  misrepresented  than  those  of 
the  human  species. 

Of  the  results  obtained  experimentally, 
those  of  Professor  Tower  on  a  small  beetle, 
called  Leptinotarsa,  are  definite  enough  to  be 
worth  quoting.  He  first  was  careful  to  find 
out  by  inbreeding  and  cross-breeding  that  he 
was  dealing  with  a  stable  species,  which  nor- 
mally produced  its  like  and  had  not  latent 
in  it  any  particular  variations.  Several 
mature  specimens  derived  from  the  same 
stock  were  then  subjected  to  different  con- 
ditions of  heat  and  cold  and  moisture.  As 
the  colour  and  pattern  is  fully  developed  by 
the  time  maturity  is  reached,  external  con- 
ditions acting  afterwards  are  imable  to  change 
it.  The  beetles  themselves,  therefore,  showed 
no  sign  of  change,  but  the  germplasm  within 
had  nevertheless  been  modified.  In  conse- 
quence of  this,  the  young  beetles  whose 
parents  had  been  exposed  to  heat  and 
drought  were  markedly  paler  in  colour  than 
were  their  parents.  The  pallor  was  no  indica- 
tion that  they  were  deficient  in  vitality; 
they  were  just  as  healthy  as  the  rest.     The 


EUGENICS  197 

germplasm  had  been  altered  in  some  unknown 
way,  so  that  less  external  pigment  was 
developed,  and  the  alteration  was  apparently 
a  permanent  one.  When  the  pale  yomig 
beetles  themselves  reached  matmdty  they 
were  bred  together  and  produced  offspring 
like  themselves,  and  so  long  as  the  experi- 
ment was  continued  the  paleness  was  exhibited 
in  each  succeeding  generation. 

Many  other  varieties  of  offspring  were 
produced  by  the  action  on  the  parent  form 
of  different  external  conditions,  and  these, 
when  produced,  bred  true  in  the  same  way 
as  the  pale  ones.  The  amount  of  pigment  was 
not  the  only  thing  affected,  but  the  pattern 
in  which  it  was  arranged  was  in  some  cases 
altered  also. 

The  experiments  as  far  as  they  go  are 
probably  the  most  certain  indication  hitherto 
afforded  that  the  germplasm,  apart  from  the 
soma,  can  be  permanently  modified  by  the 
action  of  the  environment.  But  few  biologists 
would  accept  them  as  a  proof  that  it  normally 
is  so  affected.  Until  a  great  deal  more  definite 
evidence  has  been  collected  it  would  be 
unsafe  to  give  as  decided  an  answer  to  this 
question  as  was  given  to  that  concerning 
the  inheritance  of  somatic  modifications. 

The  other  division  of  the  problem — ^namely, 
the  inquiry  into  the  effects  produced  on  the 
child  during  intra-uterine  life  by  the  acts  and 
habits  and   condition   of   its   mother,  is  an 


198  EUGENICS 

important  branch  of  the  science  of  Eugenics. 
It  is,  however,  too  purely  a  medical  question 
for  discussion  here. 

There  are  certain  other  special  circumstances 
acting  before  the  birth  of  an  individual 
which  it  is,  or  has  been  thought,  determine 
his  nature  to  some  extent  or  in  some  way. 
Among  these  may  be  classed  his  birth  rank 
among  his  brothers  and  sisters.  Are  the  first- 
bom  and  second-bom  members  of  a  family 
likely  to  be  better  or  worse  in  any  respect 
than  those  bom  later,  and  what  peculiarities, 
if  any,  distinguish  the  last  few  members  of 
a  large  family?  Professor  Pearson's  answer 
to  the  first  part  of  the  question  is — that  the 
first  and  second  bom  children  are  more 
likely  than  the  rest  to  be  tuberculous,  neu- 
rotic, insane,  or  to  have  criminal  tendencies. 
If  this  is  true,  then  the  reduction  in  the  size 
of  families  which  is  now  taking  place  will 
have  a  directly  harmful  action  on  the  race, 
apart  from  any  effect  which  it  may  produce 
by  selecting  for  reproduction  the  worse  stocks 
rather  than  the  better,  since  in  small  families 
a  larger  percentage  of  members  are  neces- 
sarily first-bom  or  second-bom  than  in 
large. 

The  type  of  evidence  on  which  Professor 
Pearson's  contention  rests  is  as  follows  :— 
The  Crossley  Sanatorium  at  Frodsham  is 
filled  with  lower  middle-class  and  working- 
class   patients   suffering   from   consumption, 


EUGENICS  199 

who  come  mostly  from  Manchester  and,  to 
a  lesser  degree,  from  Liverpool  and  its  neigh- 
bourhood. From  the  records  kept  of  the 
family  histories  of  the  patients  it  is  possible 
to  tell  how  many  came  in  each  particular 
place  in  their  families.  It  was  then  found 
that  of  381  patients,  113  were  first-bom,  and 
79  second-born.  When  the  patients  and  all 
their  brothers  and  sisters,  living  or  dead, 
are  taken  together,  it  was  found  that  in  the 
381  families  there  were  381  first-born  and 
366  second-bom.  Dividing  these  numbers  by 
the  average  nimiber  of  children  per  family, 
one  arrives  at  the  number  of  first-bom  and 
second-bom,  which,  according  to  the  theory 
of  probability,  one  would  expect  to  find  in 
a  sample  made  up  by  picking  one  child  at 
random  from  each  family.  The  numbers  are 
67  and  64.  The  381  Sanatorium  patients 
may  be  regarded  as  a  sample  selected  by 
consumption,  one  from  each  family,  and 
among  them  the  corresponding  numbers  are 
118  and  79 — that  is  to  say,  about  if  times  as 
many  first-bom  and  li  times  as  many  second- 
bom,  as  in  the  random  sample  of  the  same 
size.  As  the  differences  are  too  large  to  be 
due  to  chance,  they  appear  to  show  that  con- 
sumption does  not  pick  at  random,  but  selects 
more  particularly  the  first-bom  and  the 
second-bom.  With  regard  to  the  third  and 
later  bom  members  the  differences  were 
reversed,  there  being  fewer  of  these  among 


200  EUGENICS 

the  patients  than  would  be  the  expectation 
if  the  latter  were  drawn  by  chance,  one  from 
each  family. 

An  examination  of  the  families  of  criminal 
and  insane  persons  gives  a  concordant  result, 
but  before  attributing  it  to  any  mysterious 
inferiority  on  the  part  of  the  first  and  second 
born,  it  is  necessary  to  consider  the  possi- 
bility of  its  being  due  to  some  quite  common- 
place and  easily  intelligible  cause.  Two  such 
causes  have  been  suggested.  The  first  is  that 
infant  mortality  is  highest  among  the  later 
born  members  of  a  family,  particularly  in 
the  classes  from  which  the  patients  at  the 
Crossley  Sanatorium  and  the  criminals  and 
lunatics  dealt  with  were  drawn.  In  conse- 
quence of  this,  among  those  children  who 
survive  infancy  the  first  and  second  bom 
will  be  more  numerous  than  among  the  whole 
number  of  children.  It  is  necessary  to  survive 
infancy  in  order  to  be  eligible  for  sanatorium 
treatment  or  to  become  a  criminal  or  a 
lunatic.  Thus,  if  the  tuberculous  patients, 
criminals,  and  lunatics  were  drawn  quite  at 
random  from  those  members  of  the  family 
who  survived  infancy,  we  would  expect  to 
find  among  them  an  excess  of  first  and  second 
bom.  The  other  cause  is  suggested  by  Dr 
Ploetz^  in  the  following  words : — 'Among 
the  children  of  a  number  of  marriages  taken 

*  Dr  Alfred  Ploetz,  Neo-Malthusianism  and  Race 
Hygiene.     Read  before  the  Eugenics  Congress,  191 2. 


EUGENICS  201 

at  random,  there  are  a  good  many  children 
of  parents  who  died  early,  consequently  there 
is  a  high  proportion  of  children  who  represent 
early  members  in  birth  rank,  and  principally 
first,  second,  and  third  born.  Because  of  the 
death  of  one  or  both  parents  there  could  be 
no  later  bom.  First,  second,  and  third  bom 
children,  therefore,  come  in  a  far  greater 
percentage  from  early  deceased,  that  is  on 
the  average  weaker  parents,  than  do  the 
later  bom,  and  they  will  therefore  inherit 
in  a  higher  degree  the  weaker  constitution 
of  their  weaker  parents.' 

It  is  easier  to  believe  in  the  truth  of  these 
two  explanations  than  to  accept  as  fact  the 
view  that  in  ordinary  families  the  later  bom 
children  are  mentally  and  organically  of 
sounder  constitution  than  the  earlier  bom. 

The  evidence  on  which  the  assertion  is 
based,  that  infant  mortality  is  highest  among 
the  later  bom  members  of  a  family  is  dis- 
cussed by  Dr  Ploetz  in  the  paper  quoted.  In 
a  group  of  imselected  lower-class  marriages 
analysed  by  Geissler,  which  gave  rise  to 
26,000  births,  among  the  first  four  children  of 
each  marriage  the  percentage  who  died 
during  the  first  year  of  life  fell  between 
twenty  to  twenty-three,  for  the  fifth-bom 
it  was  twenty-six,  and  it  rose  steadily  after 
this  point,  so  that  sixty  per  cent,  of  the 
twelfth-bom  did  not  survive  for  one  year. 
Dr  Ploetz  expresses  the  opinion  that  excessive 


202  EUGENICS 

mortality  among  the  later  born  is  due  largely 
to  the  fact  that  in  a  poor  home  where  the 
family  has  become  large  the  economic  con- 
ditions grow  worse,  and  such  children  as 
are  bom  receive  less  attention  and  care  than 
when  the  family  was  smaller.  Among  royal 
families  where,  presumably,  the  conditions 
are  the  best  possible  for  all  the  children, 
there  is  no  noticeable  difference  in  mortality 
among  the  first  nine. 

If  all  the  facts  are  taken  together,  the 
safest  conclusion  to  draw  seems  to  be  that 
children  are  not  directly  affected  to  any 
marked  extent  by  their  place  in  order  of  birth. 

Two  other  environmental  agencies,  accord- 
ing to  popular  belief,  may  determine  or 
modify  innate  characters.  These  are  *Tele- 
gony'  and  'Maternal  Impressions.'^  The 
theory  of  telegony,  if  applied  to  mankind, 
would  mean  that  if  a  woman  had  a  child 
by  one  husband  and  subsequently  another 
child  by  another  husband,  the  peculiarities  of 
the  first  husband  would  exert  an  influence, 
not  only  on  his  own  child  but  on  the  other 
man's.  The  supposed  instances  are  for  the 
most  part  derived  from  the  breeding  of 
animals,  and  are  largely  due  to  mistakes  in 
the  records  of  parentage.  A  scientific  breeder 
of  fowls,  on  whose  well-ordered  farm  telegony 
was  unknown,  has  defined  it  when  exhibited 

*  Professor  J.  A.  Thomson  includes  in  his  Heredity  aa 
interesting  discussion  of  these  theories. 


EUGENICS  SOS 

by  hens  as  *she  flew  over  the  fence.*  The 
definition  is  rich  in  meaning  though  poor  in 
syntax.  If  one  supposes  that  she  flew  over 
in  secrecy  in  order  to  consort  with  a  previous 
and  preferable  mate  and  then  flew  back  again, 
we  can  well  understand  how  a  'clear  case* 
may  have  arisen. 

Although  not  all  the  better  authenticated 
instances  are  of  this  kind,  other  explanations 
which  accord  better  than  telegony  with 
generally  accepted  biological  views  are  in- 
variably forthcomings  and  one  may  be  fairly 
safe  in  asserting  that  the  Eugenist  may 
disregard  the  possibility  of  the  environment 
acting  for  good  or  evil  through  this  medium. 

Of  the  theory  of  'Maternal  Impressions,* 
early  mention  is  made  in  the  Bible.  The 
story  is  told  in  the  thirtieth  chapter  of 
Genesis,  how  Laban  and  his  son-in-law  Jacob 
agreed  that  the  latter' s  wages  should  be  'all 
the  speckled  and  spotted  cattle,  and  all  the 
brown  cattle  among  the  sheep,  and  the 
spotted  and  speckled  among  the  goats.* 
But  before  Jacob  could  get  possession  of  any 
of  them,  Laban  picked  out  from  among  his 
flocks  and  herds  every  beast  that  answered 
to  this  description  and  gave  them  to  his 
own  sons.  So  'Jacob  took  him  of  rods  of 
green  poplar,  and  of  the  hazel  and  chestnut 
tree,  and  pilled  white  strakes  in  them,  and 
made  the  white  appear  which  was  in  the  rods. 
And  he  set  the  rods  which  he  had  pilled  before 


204  EUGENICS 

the  flocks  in  the  gutters  in  the  watering- 
troughs  when  the  flocks  came  to  drink,  that 
they  should  conceive  when  they  came  to 
drink.  And  the  flocks  conceived  before  the 
rods,  and  brought  forth  cattle  ringstraked, 
speckled,  and  spotted.*  Jacob  separated  out 
this  lot  for  his  own  portion,  and  afterwards, 
*  whensoever  the  stronger  cattle  did  con- 
ceive,' he  laid  them  before  the  rods,  so  that 
their  offspring  should  be  his,  while  the 
remainder  he  left  to  Laban. 

At  the  time  when  this  narrative  was  written, 
the  belief  that  animals  would  resemble  some 
object  placed  conspicuously  before  their 
mothers  during  pregnancy  must  have  been 
a  common  one,  as  the  story  is  told  without 
comment  or  any  suggestion  that  something 
unusual  had  happened.  At  the  present  day 
the  belief  is  still  common,  but  it  is  held  more 
with  regard  to  human  beings  than  to  other 
animals.  Fresh  instances  are  constantly 
being  reported  and  talked  of  in  which  a  woman 
with  child  either  lets  her  mind  dwell  on  some 
object,  or  else  receives  some  violent  emotional 
shock  from  seeing  something  which  startles 
or  frightens  her,  with  the  result  that  her  child 
when  bom  has  some  points  of  resemblance 
to  the  object  which  has  been  in  her  mind. 

Hearsay  reports  of  a  kind  quite  inadmissible 
as  evidence  are  usually  the  only  warrant  for 
such  stories;  but  in  those  cases  in  which  it 
is  possible  to  get  an  authentic  account  of  the 


EUGENICS  205 

facts,  it  is  generally  found  that  the  resemblance 
noted  is  of  the  most  slender  description  and 
easily  explicable  on  the  assimiption  that  it 
is  due  to  coincidence.  The  number  of  children 
who  are  bom  every  day  is  very  large,  and 
their  mothers  in  the  months  before  they  are 
bom  are  particularly  liable  to  receive  shocks 
and  frights  from  events  which  would  not 
otherwise  disturb  them  much.  Under  these 
circumstances  it  is  nothing  to  be  wondered  at 
that  every  now  and  then  a  child  should  be 
bom  with  some  birth-mark  or  common  defect 
which  suggests  the  cause  of  the  shock,  or  of 
one  of  the  shocks,  to  which  its  mother  has 
been  subjected  during  her  pregnancy.  It 
should  also  be  remembered  that  a  particularly 
strong  and  protracted  emotional  experience 
of  the  mother  may  well  have  some  effect  on 
the  nutrition  of  the  child,  as  it  depends  for 
this  on  her  circulatory  system,  which  is  very 
readily  influenced  by  emotional  disturbances. 
It  is  therefore  possible  that  certain  stigmata 
which  are  often  reported  to  be  due  to  '  mater- 
nal impressions'  are  in  reality  due  to  defective 
nourishment  before  birth. 

In  the  present  state  of  our  knowledge  it 
•would  not  be  far  wrong  to  say  that  'maternal 
impressions'  are  exceedingly  unlikely  to 
influence  the  characters  of  the  human  race, 
either  for  good  or  ill,  by  impressing  on 
children  still  unborn  the  likeness  of  the 
objects  which  caused  them. 


Vm  EUGENICS 

SUMMARY   OF   CHAPTER 

Some  observations  and  inferences  are 
brought  forward  which  appear  to  show  that 
'nature'  has  a  wider  range  of  influence  than 
'nurture'  in  determining  the  development  of 
the  individual.  For  example,  Galton  found 
that  those  pairs  of  twins  who  were  in  early 
childhood  closely  similar  to  one  another 
often  retained  the  similarity  even  when 
exposed  after  childhood  to  different  conditions 
of  life;  on  the  other  hand,  those  who  early 
showed  contrasts,  when  brought  up  under 
almost  identical  conditions  in  childhood,  did 
not  grow  more  alike. 

Professor  Pearson  and  Miss  Barrington,  by 
statistical  methods,  have  shown  that  the 
condition  of  the  eyesight  is  determined  to 
a  large  extent  by  heredity,  and  is  not  adversely 
affected  in  children  by  bad  home  conditions. 
Dr  Heron  found  that  intelligence  in  school 
children  also  seems  almost  unaffected  by 
defective  physique  or  an  unfavourable  home 
environment.  Some  matters  of  common  know- 
ledge are  mentioned,  which  seem  to  indicate 
that  the  effect  of  the  environment  of  any  indi- 
vidual is  strictly  limited  by  his  natural  capacity. 

The  various  ways  in  which  outside  influences 
acting  before  the  birth  of  an  individual  may 
affect  him  are  next  discussed.  Some  of 
Tower's  experiments  on  beetles  are  briefly 
described    to    show    the    possibility    of    the 


EUGENICS  20T 

germplasm  being  permanently  altered  by 
external  conditions.  Doubt  is  expressed 
concerning  the  poisoning  of  the  germplasm 
by  parental  alcoholism;  the  greater  liability 
of  first-bom  and  second-born  members  of 
families  to  become  tuberculous,  insane,  or 
criminal;  *Telegony'  and  the  theory  of 
'Maternal  Impressions.' 

CHAPTER  X 

THE    SELECTIVE   AGENCIES 

A. — The   Differential  Birth-rate   and  the 
Death-rate 

The  Selective  Agencies  which  may  improve 
or  impair  the  inborn  qualities  of  future 
generations  either  physically  or  mentally  are 
those  which  cause  a  relatively  rapid  increase 
or  decrease  in  the  nmnbers  of  particular 
nations,  races,  or  classes,  or  of  the  possessors  of 
some  definite  good  or  evil  quality.  All 
such  agencies  must  act  by  establishing, 
directly  or  indirectly,  a  differential  birth- 
rate or  a  differential  death-rate.  Their  study 
may  be  approached  most  conveniently  by 
considering  and  comparing  the  action  of  the 
birth-rate  and  the  death-rate. 

The  birth-rate  and  the  death-rate  are 
usually  stated,  by  those  who  deal  in  vital 
statistics,  as  so  and  so  many  per  thousand 
per  annum.    If  the  population  of  a  coimtry 


208  EUGENICS 

in  a  given  year  numbered  twenty  million 
persons,  and  half  a  million  births  were 
registered  during  the  year,  the  birth-rate 
for  that  year  would  be  twenty-five  per 
thousand,  and  if  the  deaths  recorded  were 
half  as  numerous  as  the  births,  the  death- 
rate  would  be  12*5  per  thousand.  The  rate 
of  natural  increase  in  a  coimtry  is  the  amount 
by  which  the  birth-rate  exceeds  the  death- 
rate;  it  is  different  to  the  actual  increase, 
for  the  latter  is  affected  also  by  immigration 
and  emigration. 

In  estimating  the  proportionate  extent  to 
which  different  nations  are  contributing  to 
the  population  of  the  world  it  is  simplest  to 
consider  the  rate  of  natural  increase.  This 
can  only  be  ascertained  accurately  for 
countries  in  which  a  regular  system  of  regis- 
tering births  and  deaths  is  in  force.  Among 
these,  the  increase  in  New  Zealand  is  the  most 
rapid,  with  a  rate  of  18'1  per  thousand  ^  (in 
1909);  it  is  closely  followed  by  New  South 
Wales  and  Queensland,  in  which  the  numbers 
are,  respectively,  17*8  and  17*5.  South  Aus- 
tralia is  a  little  way  below  with  15*4.  Then 
comes  Prussia  with  14*8,  and  Victoria  with 
18*4;  in  England  and  Wales,  Scotland,  Italy, 
and  Hungary,  the  rate  is  between  11  and  12.^ 
In  Spain  it  is  9*2,  in  Ireland  6-8,  while  France 
comes  lowest  on  the  list  with  0*8. 

*  These  numbers  are  taken  from  Newsholme,  The 
Declining  Birth-rate.  ... 


EUGENICS  209 

If  one  turns  from  the  figures  to  consider 
the  causes  of  the  differences  indicated,  the 
most  obvious  is  that  the  now  notorious 
decline  in  the  birth-rate,  a  phenomenon  to 
be  observed  in  all  civilised  countries,  began 
at  different  times  in  different  places,  and  has 
consequently  affected  the  diverse  nationalities 
to  a  varjdng  extent.  In  France,  where  the 
rate  of  increase  is  so  low  that  the  population 
may  be  regarded  as  practically  stationary, 
the  decline  first  started  and  has  gone  farthest, 
and  the  tendency  to  a  diminished  rate  of 
increase  thus  established  has  not  been  counter- 
acted by  any  very  marked  decline  in  the 
death-rate. 

The  Australasian  colonies  do  not  owe  their 
high  position  in  the  list  to  any  very  great 
fertility  among  their  inhabitants,  but  to  the 
fact  that  their  death-rate  is  very  low.  The 
low  death-rate  is  not  due  entirely  to  excep- 
tionally healthy  conditions,  but  partly  to  the 
immigration  of  large  numbers  of  yoimg  and 
healthy  people.  In  Hungary  the  birth-rate, 
though  it  has  been  considerably  reduced  in 
the  last  thirty  years,  is  still  the  highest  of 
those  recorded;  but  as  the  death-rate  is  also 
very  high — 25*1  per  thousand,  as  compared 
to  New  Zealand's  9*2 — the  rate  of  natural 
increase  is  hardly  greater  than  in  England, 
where  both  birth-rate  and  death-rate  are 
more  than  10  per  thousand  lower. 

If  one  compares  England  and  Prussia,  one 


210  EUGENICS 

finds  that  in  the  latter  the  rate  of  increase 
is  higher  by  3*7  per  thousand.  The  difference 
in  the  actual  birth-rates  is  higher  still, 
Prussia  having  a  rate  31'8  to  England's  25-8; 
but  the  mortality,  particularly  the  infant 
mortality  in  towns,  is  so  much  higher  in 
Prussia  that  a  great  deal  of  the  excess  is 
wiped  away.  Havelock  Ellis  ^  brings  forward 
reasons  for  the  belief  that  in  a  few  years' 
time  the  rate  of  increase  of  the  German 
population  will  be  less  than  the  English. 
The  birth-rate  of  Berlin  is  already  lower  than 
that  of  London,  and  generally  speaking  the 
average  number  of  children  per  family  in 
German  towns  is  less  than  in  English  towns 
of  the  same  size.  The  rate  is  brought  up  by 
the  inhabitants  of  the  country  districts,  who 
are  rapidly  becoming  relatively  less  numerous, 
while  the  urban  population  is  fast  increasing. 
Another  comparison  of  special  interest  is 
that  between  the  white  and  yellow  races. 
Those  who  fear  'the  Yellow  Peril'  picture  to 
themselves  a  China  swarming  with  countless 
and  rapidly  increasing  myriads  of  people, 
all  able  to  support  life  in  tolerable  comfort 
on  a  quarter  of  the  weekly  wage  which  would 
barely  maintain  a  European  labourer.  If 
this  picture  were  correct,  we  might  well 
expect  either  a  peaceful  invasion,  which  would 
gradually  but  siu'cly  replace  the  white  races 
by  the  yellow;  or  if  this  were  prevented  by 
1  Havelock  Ellis,  The  Task  of  Social  Hygiene. 


EUGENICS  211 

enforcing  drastic  laws  against  the  immigra- 
tion of  the  Chinese,  then  an  invasion  of  another 
kind  by  armies,  trained  in  scientific  warfare, 
careless  of  death  and  inexhaustible  in 
numbers. 

There  are  no  statistics  available  to  tell  one 
whether  indeed  the  steady  increase  postu- 
lated is  actually  taking  place  or  not,  but 
Havelock  Ellis  has  been  able  to  collect 
evidence  which  should  free  one's  mind  from 
apprehensions  of  the  kind  just  alluded  to. 
From  the  testimony  of  doctors  practising 
in  China,  it  appears  that  the  number  of 
children  bom  is  exceedingly  large,  but  that 
the  percentage  of  those  who  grow  up  is  very 
small  indeed.  Lack  of  sanitation  and  infant- 
icide lead  to  a  mortality  rate  which  is 
estimated  by  some  authorities  to  be  as  high 
as  90  per  cent,  of  all  children  bom.  There 
are  signs  that  Western  ideas  are  likely  to 
penetrate  into  China  and  lead  to  better  con- 
ditions, and  if  this  occurs  the  death-rate 
among  children  will  undoubtedly  go  down; 
but  the  birth-rate  will  also  probably  be 
affected  in  a  corresponding  manner,  so  that 
we  have  little  to  fear  in  either  case  from  the 
prospect  of  an  inordinate  growth  in  the 
numbers  of  the  Chinese. 

It  seems  even  more  unlikely  that  the  world 
will  be  overrun  by  Japanese.  The  birth-rate 
in  Japan  in  1901-2  was  86  per  thousand,  but 
has  since  then  been  falling,  and  meanwhile  the 


212  EUGENICS 

death-rate  has  risen  to  24  per  thousand,  so 
that  the  natural  increase  rate  of  the  Japanese 
is  now  about  the  same  or  less  than  our  own. 
The  rise  of  the  death-rate  may  be  due  largely 
to  effects  of  the  Russo-Japanese  War,  and, 
if  so,  it  is  likely  to  fall  again.  But  even  in  this 
case  it  does  not  appear  probable  that  a  high 
rate  of  natural  increase  will  result. 

From  this  brief  survey  it  should  appear 
that  although  we  may  be  able  to  measure 
the  rate  at  which  populations  of  some  par- 
ticular countries  are  tending  to  multiply  by 
reason  of  their  own  fertility,  yet  it  would  be 
impossible  to  form  even  the  roughest  esti- 
mate as  to  what  changes  in  the  proportions 
of  the  various  races  on  the  face  of  the  globe 
will  be  seen  during  the  next  hundred  years. 
Owing  to  the  fact  that  the  present  rapid  fall 
in  the  birth-rate  started  in  different  countries 
at  different  times,  and  that  it  has  fallen  in 
different  degrees,  we  are  now  in  a  transi-" 
tional  stage,  and  no  one  can  say  when,  if  at 
all,  the  birth-rate  and  the  death-rate  in 
different  places  will  become  fairly  constant. 
Till  that  occurs,  little  faith  should  be  placed 
in  prophecies. 

With  regard  to  the  causes  of  the  declining 
birth-rate  itself  much  has  been  written.  The 
immediate  problems  which  present  them- 
selves may  be  indicated  by  the  following 
questions : — Is  the  decline  due  to  the  fact  that 
fewer  people  marry?    or  that  people  marry 


EUGENICS  218 

later  in  life?  Does  it  depend  on  any  lessening 
of  the  physiological  capacity  of  women  to 
bear  children  or  of  men  to  procreate  them; 
or  is  it  brought  about  by  the  deliberate 
intention  of  parents  to  limit  the  size  of  their 
families?  It  would  be  out  of  place  here  to 
enter  into  a  detailed  discussion  of  these  points; 
it  is  obvious  that  all  the  four  causes  suggested 
may  operate  at  the  same  time,  but  there  is 
little  doubt  that  the  conscious  limitation  of 
families  is  the  predominant  factor.  After 
assigning  their  proper  share  to  each  of  these 
agencies,  those  who  would  go  deeper  into  the 
question  must  determine  the  why  and  where- 
fore of  it.  Why,  for  instance,  do  people  limit 
their  families  more  than  they  used  to?  Some 
say  it  is  because  they  are  more  selfish  than 
they  used  to  be,  and  additional  children 
would  mean  the  sacrifice  of  luxuries  or  even 
of  what  are  regarded  as  necessary  comforts; 
others,  that  it  is  due  to  the  growth  of  social 
consciousness — a  feeling  of  responsibility 
towards  their  children  and  towards  society. 
Others,  again,  attribute  it  partly  to  the 
factory  acts,  which  have,  by  placing  restric- 
tions on  child  labour,  to  a  great  extent 
diminished,  among  the  industrial  classes, 
the  value  of  children  to  their  parents  as  a 
source  of  income.  All  these  reasons  may  have 
in  them  an  essence  of  truth.  Different 
motives  may  move  different  people  to  do  the 
same  thing  at  the  same  time,  when  once  the 


214  EUGENICS 

possibility  of  it  is  suggested  to  them;  and  it 
is  a  commonplace  to  say  that  the  motives  of 
individuals  are  rarely  unmixed. 

The  relative  increase  or  decrease  of  the 
racial  constituents  of  a  nation  is  a  subject 
of  great  importance  which  has  only  been 
studied  very  little.  It  is  a  problem  which 
concerns  particularly  countries  where  there 
is  a  constant  influx  of  immigrants,  for  in  these 
the  greatest  intermingling  of  races  occur.  In 
the  United  States  the  birth-rate  of  the  native- 
born  population  appears  to  be  on  the  whole 
very  low  and  the  average  size  of  the  family 
very  small,  while  the  families  are  larger  and 
the  birth-rate  higher  among  the  immigrants, 
who  thus  make  a  double  contribution  to  the 
increase  of  the  population.  No  general 
statistics  are  available  to  show  this,  but  for 
some  individual  States  detailed  and  reliable 
figures  have  been  prepared.  Of  these,  the 
most  recent  are  those  of  Hoffmann,^  based 
on  the  census  returns  of  1905  for  the  State  of 
Rhode  Island.  He  found  that  the  average 
number  of  children  for  each  married  woman 
was  3'35  among  the  foreign  born,  and  2*06 
among  the  native  born.  The  averages 
for  the  individual  nationalities  represented 
among  the  foreign  born  were: — French- 
Canadians,    4*42;     Russians,    3'51;     Italians, 


*  F.  L.  Hofimann,  Maternity  Statistics  of  the  State  of 
Rhode  Island,  State  Census  of  1905.  Read  before  the  First 
International  Eugenics  Congress. 


EUGENICS  215 

8*49;  Irish,  3*45;  Scotch  and  Welsh,  3*09; 
English,  2-89;  German,  2*84;  Swedes,  2-58; 
English-Canadians,  2'56;  Poles,  2*31.  In 
whatever  way  the  married  women  are  com- 
pared, and  whatever  factors,  such  as  difference 
in  age,  are  taken  into  account,  the  result  is 
the  same,  that  the  foreign  bom  are  shown  to 
be  much  more  productive  than  the  natives, 
and  this  greater  productiveness  is  not  coimter- 
balancedbya  much  greater  infantile  mortality. 
At  the  time  of  the  census,  75*7  per  cent,  of 
the  children  of  the  former  survived,  and 
79  per  cent,  of  the  latter — a  difference  quite 
insignificant  in  relation  to  the  difference  in 
the  number  of  births.  As  the  foreign  bom 
were  almost  a  half  of  all  the  married  women, 
the  fact  that  the  average  numbers  of  their 
children  is  more  than  50  per  cent,  higher  than 
among  the  native  bom  is  one  of  some  im- 
portance in  considering  what  will  be  the 
future  constituents  of  the  population. 

The  Massachusetts  State  census  for  1875 
and  1885  was  conducted  in  such  a  way  as  to 
allow  a  similar  comparison  to  be  made,  and 
the  conclusion  drawn  from  it  was  essentially 
the  same.  The  average  number  of  children 
to  each  married  woman  among  the  American 
born  was  2*7,  and  among  the  foreign  bom  4"5. 
Owing  to  the  general  decline  in  the  birth- 
rate, both  these  numbers  are  larger  than 
those  obtained  from  the  Rhode  Island 
census    of   1905 ;    but  in    1885    the   figures 


216  EUGENICS 

there  were  almost  the  same  as  in  Massa- 
chusetts. 

A  curious  contrast  in  fertility  is  shown 
between  the  French  resident  in  France  and 
those  whose  ancestors  emigrated  to  Canada. 
It  has  just  been  noted  that  the  latter  after 
moving  on  from  Canada  to  Rhode  Island 
are  the  most  prolific  of  the  immigrants  into 
that  State,  and  in  Canada  itself  the  French 
are  imdoubtedly  multiplying  at  a  greater 
rate  than  the  English.  The  most  probable 
cause  of  this  contrast  is  the  greater  influence 
of  the  Roman  Catholic  religion  in  Canada 
than  in  France. 

The  nature  and  number  of  the  emigrants 
into  the  younger  countries  and  colonies  is 
to  a  large  extent  determined  by  the  rate  of 
natural  increase  of  the  older  communities 
in  more  densely-populated  lands.  Thus  the 
changes  in  this  respect  shown  by  European 
countries  since  the  decline  of  the  birth-rate 
first  set  in  have  had  a  considerable  influence 
on  the  nationalities  represented  among  the 
many  immigrants  who  yearly  enter  the 
United  States.  According  to  Havelock  EUis, 
the  North  European  contingent,  which  was 
formerly  90  per  cent,  of  the  whole,  has  since 
1890  steadily  simk,  and  the  majority  now 
belong  to  the  Central,  Southern,  and  Eastern 
European  stocks.  The  rate  at  which  they 
multiply  after  settling  in  their  adopted 
country,  no  less  than  the  nature  of  the  fresh 


EUGENICS  217 

arrivals,  will  determine  the  racial  character 
and  mould  the  evolution  of  the  United 
States. 

The  older  coimtries  which  they  leave  have 
in  their  time  been  filled  with  emigrants  from 
other  parts,  who  have  come  sometimes  as 
conquering  armies  and  sometimes  as  peaceful 
and  beneficent  invaders,  teaching  new 
industries  and  enriching  the  lands  in  which 
they  settled.  No  European  nation  is  a  homo- 
geneous whole,  all  are  everchanging  groups  of 
racial  constituents  incompletely  blended.  As 
these  elements  severally  wax  and  wane,  the 
mental,  moral,  and  physical  characters  of 
the  nations  change,  and  the  changes  may 
be  reflected  in  their  history.  A  specu- 
lative attempt  to  interpret  some  phases 
of  the  history  of  Europe  in  this  way  has 
recently  been  made  by  Mr  and  Mrs  Whet- 
ham.^ 

The  racial  elements  which  they  distinguish 
as  having  been  the  principal  constituents  of 
the  European  population  during  historical 
times  are  three.  First,  the  Mediterranean 
race.  It  is  'short  of  stature,  dark  of  com- 
plexion and  hair,  long  skulled,  vivacious, 
gregarious,  and  one  may  perhaps  add  at 
once  restless  and  easy  going.'  It  may  be 
recognised  now  in  a  fairly  pure  condition  in 

»  W.  C.  D.  and  C.  D.  Whetham,  The  Influence  of  Race 
on  History.  Read  before  the  First  International  Eugenics 
Congress.     191 2. 

E.  K 


218  EUGENICS 

Ireland,  Wales,  Cornwall,  and  parts  of  the 
West  of  Scotland.  Secondly,  the  Armenoid 
race.  This  is  of  medium  stature,  medium 
colouring,  and  has  a  round  skull.  Thirdly, 
the  Northern  race.  This  is  tall  and  long 
skulled,  and  in  its  pure  condition  blue- eyed 
and  fair-haired.  It  is  vigorous,  loyal,  deter- 
mined, and  persevering,  and  it  loves  adven- 
ture. It  may  be  found  in  its  greatest  purity 
in  the  Scandinavian  peninsula  and  around 
the  Dutch  and  English  shores  of  the  North 
Sea. 

The  Whethams  attribute  the  supremacy 
of  Greece  and  Rome  to  a  happily  proportioned 
mixture  of  these  races  where  the  Northern 
provided  the  directing  power.  They  see  the 
cause  of  the  decline  and  fall  in  the  gradual 
dying  out  of  the  governing  race,  who  suffered 
in  numbers  more  than  the  others  through 
losses  in  war  and  a  lowered  birth-rate, 
and  were  swamped  by  intermarriage.  The 
Renaissance  in  Northern  Italy  they  trace 
ultimately  to  the  introduction  of  the  right 
proportion  of  the  Northern  race,  derived 
from  the  barbarian  invaders  of  the  later 
Roman  Empire. 

Our  present  social  conditions  favour  the 
Mediterranean  rather  than  the  Northern  race. 
The  latter  are  more  numerous  in  the  classes 
among  which  the  birth-rate  is  lowest  and 
the  former  live  more  readily  in  the  towns, 
and   the  towns   are   gradually   absorbing   a 


EUGENICS  219 

larger   and   larger   proportion   of  the   whole 
population. 

From  a  consideration  of  the  relative  increase 
or  decrease  in  the  racial  elements  we  can  pass 
to  the  related  questions  concerning  the  social 
classes.  It  has  long  been  recognised  that  the 
birth-rate  among  the  richer,  which  are  essen- 
tially the  same  as  the  socially  superior  sections 
of  the  community,  is  lower  than  among  the 
poorer.  Sixty  years  ago^  such  a  difference 
was  already  discernible,  but  it  has  become 
much  increased  through  the  accession  of 
new  factors  in  addition  to  those  at  that  time 
operative.  Then  it  was  probably  due  wholly 
to  the  fact  that  marriages  were  usually  con- 
tracted at  a  later  age  among  the  richer  classes 
than  among  the  poorer.  This  is  still  the  case, 
but  now,  even  when  it  is  fully  allowed  for, 
a  conspicuous  difference  remains.  A  difference 
of  productiveness  of  this  kind  has  been 
observed  in  most  of  the  more  important 
cities  of  Europe.  Bertillon  worked  out  the 
number  of  births  each  year  for  every  thousand 
women  between  the  ages  of  fifteen  and  fifty 
for  different  quarters  in  Paris,  Berlin,  Vienna, 
and  London.  The  following  table  summar- 
ised his  results,'  published  in  1897  : — 

*  David  Heron,  On  the  Relation  of  Fertility  in  Man 
to  Social  Status,  and  on  the  Changes  in  this  Relation  which 
have  taken  place  during  the  last  Fifty  Years.     1906. 

•Quoted  from  Newsholme  and  Stevenson,  The  Decline 
of  Human  Fertility.    1906. 


220                       EUGENICS 

Paris. 

Berlin. 

Vienna. 

Londo 

Very  Poor  Quarters 

108 

157 

200 

147 

Poor                          „ 

05 

129 

164 

140 

Comfortable             „ 

72 

114 

155 

107 

Very  Comfortable  „ 

65 

96 

153 

107 

Rich                          „ 

53 

63 

107 

87 

Very  Rich               „ 

84 

47 

71 

63 

Average       .  80         102         153        109 

The  relation  which  the  birth-rate  in  different 
MetropoHtan  boroughs  bears  to  their  social 
and  economic  conditions  has  been  studied 
more  recently  by  Heron,  and  by  Newsholme 
and  Stevenson. 

Heron,  using  the  correlation  method,  found 
that  in  London  the  birth-rate  per  1000  married 
women,  aged  fifteen  to  fifty-four,  is  highest 
where  the  conditions  show  the  greatest 
poverty — namely,  in  quarters  where  pawn- 
brokers abound,  where  unskilled  labour  is  the 
principal  source  of  income,  where  consump- 
tion is  most  common  and  most  deadly,  where 
pauperism  is  most  rife,  and,  finally,  where 
the  greatest  proportion  of  the  children  bom 
die  in  infancy.  The  correlation  coefficients 
show  that  the  association  of  these  evil  con- 
ditions with  the  relative  number  of  children 
bom  is  a  very  close  one,  and  if  the  question 
is  put  in  another  way,  and  the  calculations 
are  based  on  measures  of  prosperity  instead 
of  on  measures  of  poverty,  a  high  degree  of 
correlation  is  foimd  between  prosperity  and 
a  low  birth-rate. 

It  must  not  be  supposed  that  the  high  rate 


EUGENICS  ^1 

of  infant  mortality,  which  almost  invariably 
accompanies  a  high  birth-rate,  either  in 
London  or  elsewhere,  goes  far  towards 
counteracting  the  effects  of  the  differential 
birth-rate.  Where  infant  mortality  is  highest 
the  average  number  of  children  above  the 
age  of  two  for  each  married  woman  is  highest 
also,  and  although  the  chances  of  death  at 
all  ages  are  greater  among  the  inhabitants 
of  the  poorer  quarters,  their  rate  of  natural 
increase  remains  considerably  higher  than  that 
of  the  inhabitants  of  the  richer. 

From  the  detailed  study  of  the  figures  made 
by  Newsholme  and  Stevenson,  conclusions 
essentially  the  same  as  those  of  Heron  can 
be  drawn.  But  as  their  results  are  in  some 
ways  more  instructive  than  his,  it  is  worth 
while  to  give  some  account  of  them  also. 

Their  first  step  was  to  divide  the  London 
boroughs  into  six  groups  according  to  the 
average  number  of  domestic  servants  for 
100  families  in  each.  This  is  probably  as  good 
a  measure  of  prosperity  as  any  other.  They 
then  determined  the  total  birth-rate  of  the 
population  in  each  group,  and  arrived  at  the 
following  figures  : — 

Group 
I.        10  domestic  servants  for  100  families    84'97 
n.  10-20  „  „  38-32 


III.  20-30 
IV.  30-40 
V.  40-60 
VI.  over  60 


25-99 
25-88 
2511 
18-24 


222  EUGENICS 

In  order  to  find  out  how  far  the  differ- 
ences shown  by  these  figures  are  due  to 
differences  in  the  percentage  of  women  who 
marry  in  each  and  the  age  at  which  they 
marry,  they  corrected  the  figures  in  such  a 
way  as  to  make  them  represent  what  the 
birth-rates  would  be  in  each  group,  if  the 
proportion  of  wives  of  each  age  to  the  whole 
population  comprising  the  group  was  the 
same  as  it  is  in  the  whole  of  England  and 
Wales.  The  'corrected'  birth-rates  thus 
obtained  were  as  follows  : — 


Group      I.  . 

1                  • 

81-56 

Group    II.  . 

. 

25-82 

Group  III.  . 

. 

25-63 

Group   IV.  . 

. 

25-50 

Group     V.  . 

25-36 

Group   VI.  . 

. 

20-45 

It  will  readily  be  seen  that  the  effect  of 
the  correction  has  been  to  reduce  the  differ- 
ence between  the  two  extreme  groups  by 
about  one-third,  showing  that  to  this  extent 
it  is  due  to  the  way  in  which  they  differ  as 
to  the  average  age  and  number  of  the  women 
who  marry.  Further,  Groups  II.,  III.,  IV., 
and  V.  have  all  been  brought  to  about  the 
same  level,  with  a  corrected  birth-rate  about 
half-way  between  the  highest  and  the  lowest. 
This  shows  that  there  is  no  gradual  decrease 
in  fertility  associated  with  a  gradually  in- 
creasing grade  of  prosperity,  but  that  three 
sharply  divided  classes  may  be  distinguished. 


EUGENICS  228 

A  very  poor  class  with  a  high  degree  of 
fertility,  to  which  about  a  quarter  of  the 
population  of  London  belong,  a  rich  class 
with  a  low  degree  of  fertility,  and  a  class 
intermediate  in  both  respects.  The  com- 
parison between  the  corrected  birth-rate 
shows  the  degree  in  which  the  voluntary  limi- 
tation of  families  was  practised  in  different 
parts  of  the  Metropolis  about  ten  to  twelve 
years  ago.  There  is  reason  to  believe  that 
if  a  similar  comparison  were  made  now,  the 
difference  between  Group  VI.  and  Groups 
II.,  III.,  IV.,  and  V.  would  be  less  marked, 
for  it  is  thought  that  the  practice  is  spreading 
among  the  lower  middle  and  upper  part  of  the 
working  classes. 

Eugenics  is  less  directly  concerned  with  this 
side  of  the  question  than  with  the  relative 
rate  of  increase  of  the  different  classes.  This 
may  be  found  for  the  six  groups  in  the  usual 
way  by  deducting  the  death-rate  from  the 
birth-rate.  The  following  figures  for  the  rate 
of  natural  increase  are  then  obtained : — 
Group  I.,  16-56;  Group  II.,  13-89;  Group  III., 
11-43;  Group  IV.,  18-81;  Group  V.,  10-29; 
Group  VI.,  5-79.  The  great  difference  between 
the  rates  in  Group  I.  and  Group  VI.  will  be 
noted  at  once.  The  fact  that  Group  IV., 
which  consists  of  Wandsworth,  Lewisham, 
and  the  City  of  London,  stands  out  above 
Groups  III.  and  V.  is  due  to  the  fact  that 
its  death-rate  is  the  lowest  of  any. 


224  EUGENICS 

The  figures  show  m  a  manner  which  hardly 
admits  of  any  doubt  that  in  London  at  any 
rate  the  inhabitants  of  the  poorest  quarters — 
over  a  million  in  number — ^are  reproducing 
themselves  at  a  much  greater  rate  than  the 
more  well-to-do. 

The  French  census  of  1906  was  conducted 
in  such  a  way  as  to  throw  light  on  the  com- 
parative fertility  of  people  of  different  occu- 
pations. Monsieur  March,*  in  analysing  the 
data  obtained,  used  as  a  basis  of  comparison 
the  average  number  of  children  per  100  fami- 
lies in  which  the  parents  had  been  married 
for  twenty-five  years,  or  in  which  the  head 
was  sixty  to  sixty-five  years  old.  The 
results  'confirm  what  has  previously  been 
learnt  by  researches  as  to  the  influence  on 
fertility  of  social  status,  social  surround- 
ings, and  income.'  Many  other  facts  of 
importance  can  be  ascertained  from  them, 
but  they  cannot  be  conveniently  summarised 
here. 

'The  fact  that  the  birth-rate  is  much 
smaller  in  higher  than  in  lower  social  strata,' 
Newshohne  remarks,  'has  given  rise  to  many 
Cassandra-like  utterances.'  He  goes  on  to 
suggest  reasons  for  disregarding  them.  But 
Cassandra  was  a  true  prophetess,  and  her 
warnings  were  only  ineffectual  because  they 

*  La  FertiliU  des  Manages  suivant  la  Profession  et 
la  situation  sociale,  par  M.  Lucien  March,  Directeur  de 
la  Statistique  G6n6rale  de  la  France.  Read  before  the 
Eugenics  Congress.     1912. 


EUGENICS  225 

were  disregarded  by  the  Newsholmes  of  her 
time  and  city. 

The  facts  noted  should  receive  the  gravest 
consideration.  They  should  not  be  lightly 
set  aside  because  it  is  uncertain  whether  or 
to  what  degree  the  lower  social  strata  are 
inferipr  in  respect  to  inheritable  mental  or 
physical  qualities  to  those  above  them,  but 
an  attempt  should  be  made  to  collect  and 
consider  evidence  on  this  point.  Such  data 
as  are  at  present  available  for  discussion  all 
tend  to  show  the  average  superiority  of  the 
upper  classes.  If  mental  capacity  is  inherited 
no  other  result  could  be  expected.  In  every 
walk  of  life  there  are  opportunities  for  a  man 
to  rise,  and  in  most  the  qualities  which  will 
enable  him  to  take  advantage  of  them  depend 
to  some  extent  on  mental  capacity. 

It  may  be  that  the  opportunities  sometimes 
favour  moral  attributes  of  an  anti-social 
kind,  but  they  never  favour  a  weak  intellect; 
the  predatory  millionaire  is  perhaps  ethically 
of  the  same  standing  as  the  burglar,  but 
intellectually  he  far  surpasses  him.  It  may 
be  that  in  some  cases  sheer  good  fortune 
forces  one  man  up,  and  sheer  ill  fortune 
brings  another  man  down.  It  is  also  possible 
that  some  deficiency  in  hardness  of  character 
keeps  success  away  from  a  man  who  would 
otherwise  win  it;  but  if,  after  thirty  years, 
one  were  to  divide  into  groups,  according  to 
their  rise  or  fall  in  life,   men  who  had  set 


226  EUGENICS 

out  together  at  the  same  time  and  from  any 
given  position  in  the  social  scale,  there  is 
surely  no  doubt  that  native  ability  would  be 
present  on  the  average  to  a  higher  degree 
in  the  group  which  had  risen  than  in  that 
which  had  merely  maintained  its  position,  or 
that  the  latter  would  contain  more  of  it  than 
that  which  had  actually  sunk. 

To  turn  to  arguments  of  a  different  nature, 
the  London  County  Council  sets  up  educa- 
tional ladders  in  all  parts  of  the  Metropolis, 
but  finds  it  difficult  to  get  boys  to  go  up  them. 
The  number  of  children  in  the  schools  main- 
tained by  the  rates  who  are  bright  enough 
to  make  it  worth  while  to  give  them  the 
scholarships  provided  by  the  London  rate- 
payer is  hardly  enough  to  fill  them.  No 
difficulty  is  experienced  in  filling  those  at 
the  Public  Schools  or  University  with  boys 
of  a  very  respectable  level  of  intelligence, 
whose  fathers  belong  mostly  to  the  pro- 
fessional classes.  This  is  a  rough  and  vague 
method  of  comparison  which,  though  not  in 
itself  very  convincing,  is  put  forward  as 
deserving  of  thought. 

It  is  to  the  investigations  of  the  experi- 
mental Psychologists  that  one  may  look  most 
hopefully  for  the  facts  that  will  enable  one 
to  form  a  definite  decision  as  to  the  relative 
intellectual  worth  of  the  raw  material  pro- 
duced by  the  different  social  classes.  At 
present  not  enough  is  forthcoming  to  form 


EUGENICS  227 

a  really  reliable  basis  for  an  opinion,  and  in 
its  absence  we  should  abstain  from  any 
dogmatic  assertions  as  to  the  superiority  of 
one  or  another.  But,  while  recognising  that 
certainty  is  far  off,  one  must  be  guided  by 
probability,  and  the  probability  appears  to 
be  that  the  classes  who  are  providing  more 
than  their  fair  share  of  the  coming  genera- 
tions are  actually  the  mentally  inferior 
classes. 

It  is  urged  by  some  people  that  the  differ- 
ences in  productiveness  now  shown  are  only 
temporary,  and  that  in  the  course  of  a  few 
years,  owing  to  the  downward  spread  of  the 
habit  of  restricting  families,  the  birth-rate 
will  resume  a  uniform  level  throughout  the 
whole  community.  This  is  a  possibility,  but 
it  would  be  unwise  to  assume  that  it  will 
ever  be  an  actuality.  At  present,  all  one  can 
say  is  that  very  small  families  are  common 
among  the  better-class  working  men.  But 
there  seems  to  be  no  evidence  that  in 
the  bottom  stratum  this  will  ever  be  the  case. 

B. — Selective  Mortality  from  Special  Causes 

Dr  W.  C.  Wells,  in  the  year  1818,  noted 
that  negroes  and  mulattoes  enjoy  an  immunity 
from  certain  tropical  diseases,  and  con- 
cluded that  they  owed  it  to  the  fact  that 
individuals  unadapted  to  withstand  them 
would  be  weeded  out  by  death.     And  thus^ 


228  EUGENICS 

in  the  same  way  that  domestic  animals  are 
improved  by  the  conscious  selection  of  their 
breeders,  varieties  of  mankind  suited  to  the 
localities  in  which  they  live  would  be  pro- 
duced by  the  selective  action  of  the  indi- 
genous diseases. 

More  recently  the  same  idea  has  been 
developed  by  Dr  Archdall  Reid.*  His  view, 
like  that  of  Dr  Wells,  is  that  the  mortality 
from  a  disease  is  a  selective  one.  It  tends  to 
kill  those  who  are  by  nature  unable  to  resist 
it.  If  the  power  of  resistance  depends  on 
some  inheritable  property  of  the  body,  it 
will  be  transmitted  by  those  who  siuvive  the 
attacks  of  the  disease  to  their  children,  and 
if  these  again  are  exposed  to  the  chances  of 
infection  the  less  resistant  will  again  succumb, 
and  thus  be  less  likely  to  leave  children 
behind  them  than  those  who  were  better 
equipped  for  the  fight. 

A  number  of  particular  diseases  are  dis- 
cussed by  Dr  Archdall  Reid,  and  the  follow- 
ing passage  may  here  be  taken  as  an  example. 
With  regard  to  malaria  he  writes,  'Man's 
evolution  against  malaria  is  more  striking 
and  conspicuous  than  that  occasioned  by 
any  other  disease,  and  that  for  two  reasons. 
First,  because  in  many  districts  infested  by 
its  microbes,  it  is  so  prevalent  and  so  virulent 
that  no  man  resident  in  them  escapes 
infection  unless  he  is  immune,  nor  death  unless 

*  Archdall  Reid,  The  Principles  of  Heredity.     1905. 


EUGENICS  229 

he  is  resistant.  The  elimination  of  the  unfit, 
therefore,  has  been  very  thorough,  and  presum- 
ably it  has  been  very  prolonged.  .  .  .  Secondly, 
the  illness  occasioned  by  the  disease  is  of 
a  very  sudden  and  marked  character;  and, 
therefore,  observers  are  easily  able  to  con- 
trast its  effects  on  individuals  of  different 
races,  and  to  perceive  how  much  more 
resistant  are  those  races  which  have  pro- 
longed experience  of  it  than  those  to  which 
it  is  strange.  This  fact  is  admirably  brought 
out  in  the  following  table  : — 

In  Ceylon  there  died  of  malaria  fevers  per 
1000  of  the  population — 


Negroes   . 

1-1 

Natives  of  Ceylon    . 

70 

Natives  of  India 

4-5 

Europeans  (English) 

24-6 

Malays     . 

6-7 

'Just  as  regards  malaria,  so  as  regards 
tuberculosis,  the  resisting  powers  of  any 
race  is  precisely  in  proportion  to  its  past 
familiarity  with  the  disease.' 

According  to  the  views  expressed  here, 
it  appears  that  although  the  selective  nature 
of  deaths  from  disease  do  not  have  any 
general  and  direct  Eugenic  value,  they  do  to 
some  extent  adapt  mankind  to  the  environ- 
ment which  produces  it.  The  action  of  a 
disease  on  human  races  is  curiously  paral- 
leled by  the  effects  which  the  drugs  given 
to  drive  it  away  have  on  the  microscopic 


SCO  EUGENICS 

organisms  which  cause  it.  As  in  the  one 
case  the  race  of  men  gradually  becomes  able 
to  withstand  the  poison  produced  by  the 
microbes,  so  in  the  other  the  race  of  microbes 
often  acquires  the  power  to  withstand  the 
poison  administered  by  the  man. 

Second  to  disease,  the  principal  cause  to 
which  a  selective  action  may  be  attributed 
is  War.*  Havelock  Ellis  says,  *  It  is  a  remark- 
able tendency  of  the  warlike  spirit  ...  that 
it  tends  to  exterminate  itself.  Fighting 
stocks,  and  people  largely  made  up  of  fight- 
ing stocks,  are  naturally  killed  out,  and  the 
field  is  left  to  the  unwarlike.  It  is  only  the 
prudent — those  who  fight  and  run  away — 
who  live  to  fight  another  day;  and  they 
transmit  their  prudence  to  their  offspring.* 
We  would  venture  to  question  this  statement, 
and  to  point  out  that  those  who  fight  and 
run  away,  by  so  doing,  probably  prolong  the 
war  and  increase  the  number  of  its  victims, 
while  reckless  fighters,  suitably  led,  may  win 
so  quickly  that  it  is  soon  over.  The  sacrifice 
of  life  in  war-time  is  due  not  so  much  to  the 
lust  for  battle  of  those  who  die,  but  to 
imperfect  sanitation  and  the  blunders  of 
the  generals.  The  selective  action  of  modem 
warfare  is  probably  more  concerned  with 
physique  than  with  moral  qualities. 

*  Dr  David  Starr  Jordan  is  the  author  from  whoso 
work  the  idea  of  the  selective  agency  of  war  is  ultimately 
derived. 


EUGENICS  231 

The  tendency  which  great  wars  may 
have  to  cause  deterioration  in  the  physical 
characteristics  of  the  nations  engaged  was 
discussed  at  the  Eugenics  Congress  by 
Professor  Kellogg.^  Its  proof  rests  first,  on 
the  'determination  of  the  character  of  that 
part  of  the  population  especially  exposed  to 
the  selective  mortality  of  war,*  and  secondly, 
on  '  the  determination  of  certain  actual  results 
of  this  selection.' 

European  armies  consist  of  men  who  come 
up  to  a  certain  standard  of  physical  develop- 
ment. The  standard  may  be  a  low  one, 
but  in  countries  where  military  service  is 
compulsory,  those  who  escape  it  by  reason 
of  their  defective  physique  form  a  con- 
siderable proportion  of  the  whole  number 
liable  to  serve.  In  France  and  Germany, 
thirty  to  fifty  per  cent,  of  the  conscripts  are 
rejected  as  unfit  for  service  because  of  imder- 
size,  infirmities,  or  disease;  and  in  1911,  out 
of  64,000  men  who  offered  themselves  for 
enlistment  in  England,  Scotland,  and  Wales, 
forty-five  per  cent,  did  not  reach  the  required 
standard.  These  figures  are  a  sufficient 
illustration  of  the  fact  that  if  a  war  occurs, 
the  men  who  lose  their  lives  in  it,  either  in 
battle  or  from  disease,  will  be  on  an  average 
physically  superior  to  those  of  the  corre- 
sponding age  who  are  not  exposed  to  the 
risks.    It  is  hardly  necessary  to  insist  that  in 

*V.  L.   Kellogg,  Eugenics  and  Militarism. 


EUGENICS 

a  great  war  the  number  of  the  killed  are  by 
no  means  negligible,  but  form  a  quite  con- 
siderable proportion  of  the  populations  from 
•which  they  are  drawn. 

The  actual  results  of  war  on  national 
physique  may  be  deduced  from  the  recruiting 
records  of  the  French  Government,  which  have 
been  kept  in  some  detail  from  the  beginning 
of  the  last  century.  The  figures  show  that 
the  great  wastage  of  life  for  which  Napoleon 
was  responsible  had  its  effect  in  the  progres- 
sive decrease  in  average  stature  in  the  mili- 
tary levies  of  1818  and  onwards.  But  when 
the  men  who  were  bom  after  the  Napoleonic 
wars  started  coming,  in  the  average  stature 
rose  again  by  more  than  an  inch.  Corre- 
sponding to  these  changes  in  stature  were 
changes  in  national  vigour,  which,  though  less 
easy  to  demonstrate,  had  a  more  lasting  effect 
on  the  health  of  the  nation. 

Far  more  numerous  than  losses  in  war  are 
the  deaths  of  infants  from  more  or  less 
preventible  causes.  The  selective  action  of 
infant  mortality  is  a  question  about  which 
conflicting  opinions  are  held,  but  about  which 
there  is  little  definite  evidence.  The  conclu- 
sions arrived  at  by  Mr  Snow,*  who  made  an 
elaborate  statistical  investigation  of  the 
subject,  seem  to  point  to  the  fact  that  it  is 
actually  the  weakliest  children  who   die  in 

*  E.  C.  Snow,  The  Intensity  of  Natural  Selection  in 
Man.     191 1. 


EUGENICS  288 

infancy.  Mr.  Snow's  results  cannot,  however, 
be  accepted  as  established,  and  even  if 
they  were,  one  need  not  on  that  account 
suppose  that  heavy  infant  mortality  has  any 
beneficial  effect,  for  it  is  more  than  probable 
that  the  conditions  which  produce  it  cause 
harm  to  those  who  survive,  and  result  in  the 
production  of  a  less  healthy  family  than  there 
would  have  been  if  only  the  number  left  over 
had  been  born  in  the  first  instance,  and  the 
conditions  had  been  good  enough  to  permit 
the  survival  of  all. 

The  Selective  Marriage-rate  and 
Sexual  Selection 

These  two  agencies  must  be  briefly  referred 
to.  A  Selective  Marriage-rate  is  of  impor- 
tance in  the  way  in  which  it  affects  the  birth- 
rate. It  may  itself  be  due  to  Sexual 
Selection,  or  to  regulations  or  customs  which 
prevent  or  encourage  marriage,  of  which 
examples  are  given  in  Chapter  I. 

There  is  reason  to  beUeve  that  the  move- 
ment for  the  emancipation  of  women,  which 
is  rendered  so  conspicuous  by  its  more 
grotesque  manifestations,  is  wide  and  deep 
enough  to  have  a  well-marked  influence  in 
sexual  selection,  the  marriage-rate,  and  the 
birth-rate.  It  owes  its  origin  partly  to  the 
numerical  excess  of  women  over  men,  a 
condition  which  itself  modifies  sexual  selection 


284  EUGENICS 

by  putting  the  choice  of  a  mate  rather  in  the 
hands  of  men  than  of  women.  Among 
the  professional  classes  the  movement  has 
encouraged  the  spread  of  higher  education 
among  women.  This  appears  to  have  led  to 
decreased  fertility  among  some  of  the  most 
capable — a  result  probably  not  due  to  any 
decline  of  physiological  capacity,  but  to  the 
'spinster  influence*  in  education. 

SUMMARY   OF   CHAPTER 

The  birth-rate  and  death-rate  are  con- 
sidered, first,  as  agencies  which  may  have  an 
international  significance  in  bringing  about 
changes  in  the  numerical  relation  between 
different  nationalities  and  the  population  of 
the  world. 

Considering  individual  nations  separately, 
their  character  may  be  altered  either  by  the 
relative  increase  of  some  of  the  racial  elements 
comprising  them,  or  by  the  more  rapid 
multiplication  of  particular  social  classes. 
Certain  researches  illustrating  these  points 
are  described. 

The  selective  action  of  disease,  war,  and 
infantile  mortality  are  next  treated,  and, 
finally,  reference  is  made  to  marriage-rates 
and  sexual  selection. 


EUGENICS  235 


CHAPTER  XI 

SOCIAL      CONTROL,       AND       SUGGESTIONS       FOR 
A   PRACTICAL   POLICY 

The  practical  measures  by  which  Eugenic 
principles  may  be  applied  are  sometimes 
divided  into  two  classes,  called  respectively 
positive  and  negative.  Positive  Eugenics 
aims  at  securing  the  multiplication  of  those 
individuals  who  are  inherently  above  the 
average  in  physical,  mental,  and  moral 
qualities.  Negative  Eugenics  aims  at  pre- 
venting increase  of  the  stocks  from  which 
persons  inferior  in  these  respects  may  be 
expected  to  be  derived.  This  classification 
is  open  to  a  good  deal  of  criticism,  and  the 
words  positive  and  negative  are  hardly  well 
chosen.  The  measures  sometimes  advocated 
under  the  heading  of  negative  Eugenics  are 
generally  of  a  more  positive  description  than 
any  which  could  reasonably  be  suggested  in 
the  other  category,  and  much  that  is  most 
feasible  in  the  proposals  for  an  Eugenic 
policy  cannot  be  entered  in  either  class.  For 
example,  by  the  teaching  of  sexual  hygiene 
and  the  promulgation  of  sane  ideals  in  respect 
to  marriage  and  procreation,  it  is  endeavoured 
at  the  same  time  to  secure  that  the  maximum 
number  of  children  shall  be  raised  and  reared 


^6  EUGENICS 

under  the  best  possible  conditions  of  parent- 
age, and  the  minimum  under  the  worst. 

Therefore,  in  considering  the  methods  by) 
which  the  social  control  is  or  possibly  can  be 
brought  to  bear  on  the  agencies  which  im- 
prove and  impair  the  racial  qualities  of  future 
generations,  this  classification  will  not  be 
used,  but  the  methods  will  be  grouped  accord- 
ing to  the  manner  in  which  the  control  is 
exercised.  The  most  important  class  com- 
prises marriage  laws  and  customs. 

Marriage  Laws   and  Customs 

It  is  sometimes  urged  by  persons  opposed 
to  Eugenics  that  it  can  only  proceed  by 
enforcing  restrictions  in  marriage,  and  that 
such  restrictions  are  either  impossible  or 
undesirable  in  that  they  would  lead  to  worse 
results  than  those  which  they  were  designed 
to  prevent.  Two  answers  may  be  made  to 
this  objection :  first,  that  restrictions  in 
marriage  form  no  necessary  part  of  an 
Eugenic  policy;  secondly,  that  such  restric- 
tions may  be  and  have  been  enforced  with 
ease  and  without  friction.  In  a  paper  on  the 
subject,  read  by  Sir  Francis  Galton  before  the 
Sociological  Society  in  1905,  he  reviews 
certain  laws  and  customs  which  interfere 
with  the  free  selection  of  a  mate.  The  first 
of  these  is  monogamy,  a  restriction  not 
imposed  by  natural   instinct,   but  owing  its 


EUGENICS  237 

origin  to  a  consideration  for  social  well- 
being.  The  majority  of  people  belonging  to 
those  nations  among  whom  monogamy  is  in 
force  aquiesce  in  it  with  readiness,  even  if 
some  rebel  and  form  what  are  practically 
polygamous  connections. 

Secondly,  'Endogamy,  or  the  custom  of 
marrying  exclusively  within  one's  own  tribe 
or  caste,  ^  has  been  sanctioned  by  religion 
and  enforced  by  law  in  all  parts  of  the  world.* 

Exogamy,  which  is  the  exact  opposite  of 
endogamy,  has  been  as  widely  spread  and  is 
now  practised  largely  by  barbarians.  Among 
the  Australian  bushmen  the  customs  regulat- 
ing marriage  are  both  very  complicated  and 
very  rigidly  enforced,  while  the  prohibition 
of  marriage  among  kinsmen  of  some  degrees, 
and  celibacy  voluntarily  assumed  from 
religious  motives  are  familiar  to  all.  Galton 
argues  that  if  such  restrictions  as  these  have 
been  submitted  to,  it  would  be  possible 
among  a  people  impressed  with  the  virtues  of 
the  Eugenic  ideal  to  enforce  others  which  have 
for  their  object  the  improvement  of  the  race. 

Marriage  laws,  in  so  far  as  they  concern 
themselves  with  the  biological  aspects  of 
marriage,  are  discussed  by  Mr  C.  B.  Daven- 
port, in  a  paper  communicated  to  the  Eugenic 
Congress  of  1912.     He  points,  firstly,  to  the 

*  In  civilised  countries  endogamy  is  practised,  in  that 
it  is  almost  a  universal  custom  to  marry  within  one's 
own  social  class. 


238  EUGENICS 

fact  that  in  all  civilised  States  persons  related 
to  one  another  in  certain  degrees  are  not 
permitted  to  intermarry,  and  he  suggests  that 
the  prohibition  arises  from  society's  early 
and  evil  experience  of  the  results  of  such 
matings.  Records  of  the  offspring  of  such 
incestuous  matings  as  brother  and  sister, 
father  and  daughter,  are  forthcoming  in 
considerable  numbers  at  the  present  day, 
and  would  certainly  seem  to  confirm  the 
essential  wisdom  of  the  laws  forbidding 
them.  But  when  the  degree  of  relationship 
is  as  distant  as  that  of  first  cousins  the  case 
is  much  more  doubtful.  In  Europe  such 
marriages  are  allowed  by  the  civil  law  of 
most  countries,  but  in  some,  where  the 
canonical  law  of  the  Roman  or  Greek  Church 
is  in  force,  they  are  prohibited.  In  Greece 
and  Russia  a  man  may  not  marry  his  first  or 
second  cousins  or  any  relatives  to  the  sixth 
degree.  In  Spain,  marriage  is  not  permitted 
to  relatives  of  the  fourth  degree,  which 
include  first  cousins,  and  in  Austria  also 
marriages  of  the  latter  are  prohibited.  It 
appears,  however,  that  in  all  these  countries 
dispensations  can  be  obtained  without  much 
difficulty;  and  in  America,  where  there  are 
laws  forbidding  marriages  between  first 
cousins  in  sixteen  States,  it  is  questionable 
to  what  extent  they  are  enforced.  Such 
laws  are  bound  to  be  ineffective  unless  sanc- 
tioned and  supported  by  public  opinion. 


EUGENICS  239 

With  the  exception  of  religious  eelibacy, 
which  could  obviously  never  become  univwsal 
among  any  people,  the  restrictive  laws  and 
customs  hitherto  mentioned  are  the  less 
harsh,  and  therefore  the  more  readily  sub- 
mitted to,  in  that  they  do  not  prevent  any 
individual  from  marrying — ^they  merely  limit 
him  in  the  choice  of  a  mate.  Some,  however, 
actually  in  force,  go  further  and  absolutely 
prohibit  matrimony  to  persons  who  do  not 
reach  to  a  required  standard.  Thus,  accord- 
ing to  Westermarck,  among  certain  savage 
tribes  a  man  is  not  allowed  to  take  a  wife 
unless  he  can  show  he  is  capable  of 
supporting  her.  The  proof  of  his  ability 
differs  from  place  to  place,  according  to 
circumstances.  Among  certain  Bechuana 
and  Kafir  tribes  the  prospective  husband 
must  have  killed  a  rhinoceros ;  among  the 
Dyaks  of  Borneo,  and  other  peoples 
in  the  Malay  Archipelago,  the  minimum 
requirement  is  the  acquisition  of  a  cer- 
tain number  of  heads  from  foreign  tribes, 
by  the  slaughter  of  their  original  owners. 
The  same  idea  can  be  recognised  in  the 
marriage  laws  even  of  civilised  countries,  for 
in  the  American  State  of  Delaware  marriages 
of  paupers  are  not  permitted,  and  in 
Indiana  no  male  who  is  or  has  been  within 
five  years  an  inmate  of  any  county  asylum 
or  home  for  indigent  persons  is  allowed  to 
marry  unless  he  can  show  that  the  cause  of 


240  EUGENICS 

his  condition  has  been  removed  and  that  he 
can  support  a  family. 

In  many  comitries,  such  as  Austria,  Switzer- 
land, and  the  greater  part  of  the  United 
States,  idiots  or  insane  persons  are  not 
permitted  to  marry  on  the  legal  ground  that 
they  are  incapable  of  making  a  valid  con- 
tract; but  in  some  the  Eugenic  principle  is 
recognised  by  extending  the  prohibition  to 
epileptics  and  other  persons  to  whom  this 
reason  does  not  apply.  The  State  of  Washing- 
ton goes  furthest  in  this  respect  by  not 
allowing  'Marriages  of  common  drunkards, 
habitual  criminals,  epileptics,  imbeciles, 
feeble-minded,  or  those  who  are  afflicted  with 
hereditary  insanity,  advanced  consumption, 
or  any  contagious  venereal  disease.'  It  is 
obvious  that  this  enactment  has  been  made 
in  order  to  prevent  the  reproduction  of 
persons  in  the  conditions  mentioned,  because 
it  does  not  apply  to  marriages  in  which  the 
female  party  is  over  forty-five  years  of  age. 
In  Kansas,  in  order  to  supplement  the 
prohibition  made  for  the  same  reason  of  the 
marriage  of  epileptics,  imbeciles,  feeble-minded 
or  insane  persons,  a  law  has  been  passed 
making  cohabitation  between  unmarried 
persons  a  criminal  offence.  There  is  no 
ground  for  supposing  that  any  good  can  come 
from  laws  such  as  these.  Even  if  it  were 
possible  to  prevent  by  statute  the  marriage 
of  epileptics  and  feeble-minded  persons  and 


EUGENICS  241 

their  like,  illegitimate  unions  and  the  increase 
of  prostitution  would  be  the  result,  and  there 
is  abundant  proof  that  laws  are  powerless 
to  stop  these  evils. 

Regulations  permitting  the  annulment  of 
marriages  in  which  one  of  the  parties  has 
concealed  some  fact  of  importance  concerning 
his  mental  or  bodily  health  are  in  force  in 
some  coxmtries,  and  have  been  recommended 
by  the  Majority  Report  of  the  recent  Divorce 
Commission.  They  are  in  many  ways  of 
greater  Eugenic  value  than  prohibitions  of 
the  kind  described,  and  inflict  undeserved 
hardship  on  no  one,  but  rather  serve  as  a  pro- 
tection against  it.  In  Switzerland  a  marriage 
may  be  rendered  void  '  by  one  of  the  spouses, 
where  a  disease,  which  seriously  endangers 
the  health  of  the  petitioner  or  his  descendants, 
has  been  concealed  from  him.'  In  Portugal 
and  in  Brazil  a  marriage  may  be  annulled 
on  the  ground  that  a  mistake  has  been  made 
by  one  spouse  owing  to  ignorance  of  a  crime 
committed  by  the  other  before  marriage,  or 
of  a  previous  incurable  physical  defect  or 
any  incurable  contagious  or  hereditary 
disease. 

The  principle  recognised  in  these  regula- 
tions, that  each  party  to  a  marriage  has  the 
right  to  know  those  facts  concerning  the 
bodily  condition  of  the  other  which  may 
affect  him  or  his  children,  is  carried  a  step 


242  EUGENICS 

further  in  the  following  proposals  laid  before 
the  Norwegian  Storthing  by  Dr  Mjoen^  : — 
*  That  [in  addition  to  the  provisions  at  present 
embodied  in  the  marriage  law]  there  should 
be  a  declaration  by  each  of  the  two  con- 
tracting parties,  made  at  a  date  not  exceeding 
six  months  before  marriage,  in  regard  to 
whether  either  is  subject  to  a  disease  or 
weakness  which  might  have  an  injurious 
effect  on  the  health  of  the  other  or  of  the 
offspring;  and,  further,  that  each  declara- 
tion should  be  accompanied  by  a  document 
signed  by  the  parents  or  guardians  of  both 
parties,  stating  that  it  has  been  submitted 
to  their  notice,  and  that,  consequently,  they 
have  had  opportunity  to  raise  any  necessary 
objections  or  to  make  representations  to 
the  one  or  the  other  of  the  couple  intending 
marriage.  The  declara>tions  should  be  made 
before  a  physician  authorised  by  the  State.' 

If  this  proposal  were  adopted,  it  would 
no  doubt  have  to  be  enforced  either  by 
making  punishable  a  false  declaration  made 
with  intent  to  deceive,  or  by  considering  it 
a  ground  for  the  annulment  of  the  marriage. 
It  is  intended  primarily  to  protect  women 
from  marrying  men  suffering  from  venereal 
disease,  but  is  capable  of  effecting  other 
Eugenic    objects.      Thus    the    disclosure    of 

*  Translated  from  Nylaende  (Norwegian  Journal  of 
Women's  Rights),  quoted  from  The  Eugenics  Review, 
Vol.  IV.,  No.  4,  1913. 


EUGENICS  243 

epilepsy  or  a  tendency  to  insanity  might  well 
be  insisted  on,  and  even  in  cases  where  both 
parties  agreed  to  the  marriage  in  spite  of 
such  defects  they  would  be  warned  to  take 
advice  concerning  the  desirability  of  having 
children. 

Sterilisation   and  Institutional   Care 

By  sterilisation  is  meant  the  removal  of 
power  of  reproduction.  This  may  be  accom- 
plished by  simple  operations,  which  do 
not  interfere  with  normal  life  in  any  way. 
In  man  they  are  attended  by  no  sort  of 
danger,  but  some  risk  is  run  in  the  case  of 
women.  It  would  be  out  of  place  here  to 
discuss  the  nature  of  these  operations;  it  is 
sufficient  to  point  out  that  castration  is  not 
among  them. 

Laws  permitting  or  enforcing  sterilisation 
in  certain  cases  have  been  passed  in  several 
States  of  the  American  Union,  but  up  till 
quite  recently  it  has  been  difficult  to  obtain 
information  as  to  how  they  were  working. 
The  difficulty  has  now  been  removed  by  the 
action  of  the  Eugenic  Section  of  the  American 
Breeders'  Association  in  appointing  a  com- 
mittee *To  study  and  report  on  the  best 
practical  means  for  cutting  off  the  defective 
germplasm  in  the  human  population.'  Though 
the  wording  of  the  terms  of  reference  may 
raise  a  smile,  by  the  na!ve  way  in  which  a 


244  EUGENICS 

practical  problem  is  expressed  in  the  language 
of  a  biological  theory,  the  committee  is 
a  serious  and  business-like  body,  consisting 
of  men  of  ability  and  experience,  and  assisted 
by  specialists  in  all  branches  of  relevant 
knowledge.  Their  preliminary  report  was 
comimunicated  to  the  Eugenics  Congress  by 
the  chairman,  Mr  Bleecker  Van  Wagenen, 
and  contains  an  accoimt  of  the  American 
sterilisation  laws  and  of  the  extent  to  which 
they  have  been  enforced,  together  with  a 
careful  examination  of  the  actual  effects  on 
the  subjects  of  the  operations  involved.  The 
eight  States  which  have  passed  laws  of  this 
description,  together  with  the  dates  in  which 
they  were  passed  are  given  as  follows  : — • 
Indiana,  1907;  Washington,  1909;  California, 
1909;  Connecticut,  1909;  Nevada,  1911; 
Iowa,  1911;  New  Jersey,  1911;  New  York, 
1912.  But  at  the  present  time  their  opera- 
tion has  been  suspended  as  the  question  has 
been  raised  whether  the  constitution  of  the 
Union  permits  of  such  enactments  by  indi- 
vidual States.  It  thus  happens  that  only  in 
the  case  of  Indiana  and  California  have  they 
ever  been  enforced.  In  Indiana  a  commission, 
consisting  of  three  surgeons,  is  empowered  to 
select  for  treatment  from  reformatories  or 
other  State  institutions  of  a  similar  nature 
persons  '  deemed  by  them  to  be  unimprovable 
mentally  and  physically,  and  unfit  for  pro- 
creation.'     During  the  year  1907  and  1908 


EUGENICS  245 

125  operations  were  compulsorily  performed, 
but  in  January,  1909,  a  new  governor 
was  elected  opposed  to  such  measures,  and 
since  then  nothing  of  the  kind  has  been 
done. 

In  CaUfomia  the  persons  subject  are  inmates 
of  State  hospitals  for  the  Insane  and  homes 
for  the  Feeble-minded,  inmates  of  State 
prisons  committed  for  life  or  showing  sexual 
or  moral  perversion,  also  those  who  have  been 
twice  committed  for  sexual  offences  or  three 
times  for  other  crimes.  The  selection  is 
made  on  the  recommendation  of  the  superin- 
tendent or  resident  physician  to  a  board 
consisting  of  himself,  three  general  superin- 
tendents, and  the  secretary  of  the  State 
Board  of  Health.  Whereas  in  Indiana  the 
motive  of  the  State  in  passing  the  law  is 
purely  Eugenic,  in  California  the  principal 
object  is  the  physical,  mental,  and  moral 
improvement  of  the  persons  operated  on. 
Although  armed  with  compulsory  powers, 
the  board  referred  to  has,  as  far  as  possible, 
avoided  using  them.  In  the  majority  of 
cases  where  the  operation  was  indicated,  the 
written  consent  of  the  patient's  relatives  was 
obtained.  In  some  the  decision  was  made 
by  the  patient  himself,  if  he  was  mentally 
in  a  condition  sound  enough  to  render  a 
reasoned  consideration  of  the  question  possible. 
In  all  two  hundred  and  twenty  persons, 
ninety-four    of     them    women,    have    been 


246  EUGENICS 

treated  in  the  Jeffersonville  reformatory  since 
November,  1910. 

Besides  inquiring  into  the  nature  of  these 
laws,  and  the  extent  of  their  practical  appli- 
cation, the  committee  took  special  pains  to 
find  out  what  physical  or  psychical  changes 
were  produced  on  the  persons  operated  on, 
and  whether  any  undesigned  hardship  or 
discomfort  was  inflicted  or  any  risk  entailed. 
They  found  that  the  operation  usually  per- 
formed on  men  is  simple  and  practicable, 
that  it  is  attended  by  no  risk  or  discomfort, 
and  does  not  interfere  with  the  sexual  func- 
tions except  in  attaining  its  object  of  prevent- 
ing procreation.  It  does  not  appear  to  modify 
the  mental  or  moral  character  in  any  unde- 
sirable way.  There  are  three  different  opera- 
tions of  a  parallel  nature  which  may  be  per- 
formed on  women,  but  none  of  them  is  wholly 
free  from  danger  to  life  or  of  disturbance  in 
other  bodily  and  mental  functions. 

The  enactment  of  these  laws  in  America 
has  not  been  due  to  any  general  demand  for 
them.  They  were  carried  through  owing  to 
the  enthusiasm  of  quite  a  small  number  of 
people  among  a  public  caring  for  none  of 
such  things.  In  some  States  where  bills 
were  introduced  a  hostile  attitude  taken  up 
by  one  determined  person  was  enough  to 
prevent  them  becoming  law.  Sterilisation 
inflicted  compulsorily  under  such  a  law  as 
that  of  Indiana  is  in  effect  a  punishment 


EUGENICS  247 

imposed  by  a  board  which  differs  from  a 
court  of  justice,  both  in  its  constitution  and 
in  the  fact  that  the  prisoner  is  not  heard  in 
his  own  defence  or  represented  by  counsel. 
As  the  first  principles  of  justice  are  thus 
traversed,  it  is  undesirable  and  unlikely  that 
legislation  entailing  it  will  ever  become  at 
all  general;  indeed,  it  seems  likely  that  it  has 
already  received  its  death-blow.  But  against 
sterilisation  by  consent  there  could  be  no 
objection  on  the  ground  described  above,  and 
it  might  be  regarded  in  many  cases  as  a 
desirable  substitute  for  a  lengthy  incarcera- 
tion in  some  institution.  A  typical  case  of 
this  nature  is  brought  forward  by  the  com- 
mittee, and  will  here  be  quoted. 

'Case  and  family  history  of  H.,  an  inmate 
of  the  Boston  State  Hospital  for  the  Insane. 
The  patient  is  42  years  of  age,  a  native  of 
Ireland,  had  been  committed  to  an  insane 
hospital  before  coming  to  America.  Good 
habits,  steady  worker,  can  earn  ten  dollars 
a  week  in  low-grade  shipping  work.  The 
wife  of  the  patient  is  of  a  decidedly  inferior 
make-up,  but  is  a  good  mother,  and  keeps 
a  clean  and  orderly  house.  She  said  they  had 
had  all  the  children  they  could  provide  for, 
and  that  they  do  not  want  any  more,  but 
realised  that  probably  more  would  come.' 
Of  the  children  which  they  had  already  had, 
four  had  died  in  infancy  and  three  were 
feeble-minded,  only  one  appeared  to  be  aUve 


248  EUGENICS 

and  normal.  'After  a  few  months  treatment 
it  was  foimd  that  the  patient  had  apparently 
recovered,  and  was  able  to  go  back  to  the 
industrial  world,  and  it  was  learnt  that  he 
could  secure  his  old  position  at  ten  dollars 
a  week.  Meanwhile  the  patient  was  at  the 
State  expense  and  his  family  was  depending 
on  charity.  The  only  objection  to  his  release 
was  the  danger  of  propagating  more  children 
of  the  sort  already  produced.  The  operation 
was  proposed,  but  he  objected.  The  wife  was 
brought  in,  and  the  patient,  hospital  authori- 
ties, and  the  wife  held  a  conference.  Thie 
operation  was  finally  agreed  to  by  the  man, 
and  was  performed,  and  the  patient  dis- 
charged.* 

Cases  like  this  seem  to  show  that  there  are 
occasions  in  which  sterilisation  can  be  per- 
formed without  imposing  hardship  on  any 
one,  and  almost  with  the  certainty  of  pre- 
venting the  birth  Of  feeble-minded  children, 
destined,  if  born,  to  be  a  burden  to  the 
commimity.  Thus  even  in  the  present  state 
of  our  knowledge  of  the  laws  of  heredity  it 
should  receive  consideration  as  a  practical 
Eugenic  measure.  The  only  alternative  which 
could  effect  the  same  object  is  some  form  of 
custodial  care,  either  in  an  institution  or 
under  suitable  guardianship.  This  has  not 
the  objection  of  being  irrevocable,  and  has 
the  positive  merit  of  keeping  safe  those  per- 
sons who  would  otherwise  be  likely  to  injure 


EUGENICS  249 

themselves  and  others.  It  is  indeed  almost 
entirely  on  the  latter  groimd  that  custodial 
care  is  proposed  in  such  measures  as  the 
Mental  Deficiency  Bill,  which  was  introduced 
into  Parliament  in  1912.  This  bill  provided 
that  certain  classes  of  the  mentally  deficient 
might  be  placed  in  a  special  institution  or 
imder  guardianship — namely,  'those  who  are 
found  wandering  about,  neglected,  or  cruelly 
treated ;  who  are  charged  with  the  com- 
mission of  any  offence,  or  are  undergoing 
imprisonment  or  penal  servitude  or  detention 
in  a  place  of  detention,  or  a  reformatory  or 
industrial  school,  or  an  inebriate  reformatory, 
or  who  are  habitual  drunkards  within  the 
meaning  of  the  Inebriates  Acts,  1879  and 
1900;  also  those  children  discharged  at  the 
age  of  sixteen  from  the  special  schools  and 
classes  for  defective  and  epileptic  children, 
for  whom,  in  their  own  interest,  the  local 
education  authority  thinks  such  care  desir- 
able,' and  one  or  two  other  vaguer  categories. 
This  bill  was  opposed  principally  on  the 
ground  that  it  interfered  with  individual 
liberty,  an  objection  which  might  be  made  to 
all  laws  made  for  the  protection  of  society; 
no  measure  of  liberty  is  possible  for  any  one 
unless  some  bounds  are  placed  to  the  liberty 
of  all.  Freedom  is  nothing  to  be  desired  in 
itself;  but  is  only  valuable  as  a  condition 
antecedent  to  that  companionship  with  others 
and  to  that  employment  of  the  mind  or  body 


250  EUGENICS 

which  bring  happiness  and  completion  to  the 
lives  of  human  beings.  Where  freedom  leads 
to  no  such  development,  but  merely  to  evil 
which  spreads  and  grows,  it  destroys  itself  by 
forging  fetters  of  crime  and  drunkenness, 
disease  and  vice.  It  is  no  brutal  tyranny 
that  aims  at  saving  from  such  evils  those  who 
cannot  save  themselves. 

Some  other  methods  of  social  control  may 
be  considered  more  conveniently  in  the 
suggestions  for  a  practical  Eugenic  policy, 
which  will  form  the  concluding  part  of  this 
volume. 

Suggestions  for  an  immediate  Eugenic  Policy 

It  is  sometimes  urged  against  Eugenics 
by  those  who  admit  the  soundness  of  its 
theoretical  basis,  that  it  is  impossible  to 
carry  into  practice  any  of  the  lessons  which 
it  would  teach.  There  is  no  form  of  prophecy 
which  has  more  repeatedly  been  falsified  than 
assertions  of  impossibility.  It  is  urged  by 
others  that  a  vastly  wider  and  more  exact 
knowledge  of  heredity  is  required  before  any 
practical  steps  may  be  safely  taken.  The 
answer  to  this  is  that  the  knowledge  avail- 
able at  present  is  enough  to  justify  a  fairly 
wide  programme,  on  which  the  acquisition 
of  fresh  knowledge  must  stand  first. 

There  is  ample  knowledge  to  justify  the 
introduction  of  a  measure  for  the  care  and 
control  of  the  feeble-minded  and  of  moral 


EUGENICS  251 

imbeciles — that  is  to  say,  'persons  who  from 
an  early  age  display  some  mental  defect, 
coupled  with  strong  vicious  or  criminal  pro- 
pensities on  which  punishment  has  little  or 
no  deterrent  effect.'  This  control  should  be 
of  a  sufficiently  effective  and  permanent  kind 
to  preclude  the  possibility  of  such  persons 
propagating  their  kind. 

The  passing  of  such  a  measure  is  the  only 
directly  Eugenic  legislation  which  can  at  present 
be  advocated,  and  it  may  be  urged  more 
strongly  on  purely  humanitarian  grounds. 

Another  practical  step  which  may  be  taken 
with  safety  is  the  examination  of  existing 
laws  and  customs  in  order  to  determine  their 
effect  on  future  generations.  In  particular, 
the  incidence  of  taxation  is  a  point  to  be 
considered;  the  Eugenist  should  advocate  its 
adjustment  in  such  a  way  as  not  to  penalise 
parenthood  among  the  self-supporting  classes. 
The  equity  of  this  principle  has  already  been 
recognised,  though  in  an  altogether  inadequate 
manner,  in  the  Finance  Act  of  1909,  under 
which  a  rebatement  of  income  tax  for  each 
child,  amoimting  to  seven  shillings  and  six- 
pence per  annum,  is  allowed  to  fathers  of 
families  with  an  income  of  under  £500  a  year. 

But  it  is  local  rather  than  imperial  taxa- 
tion which  places  the  heaviest  burden  on  the 
family.  The  rates  levied  on  house  property 
may  be  considered  to  some  extent  as  a  tax 
on  the  children  of  the  self-supporting,  which 


252  EUGENICS 

is  levied  largely  for  the  purpose  of  rearing 
the  children  of  those  who  either  do  not 
support  themselves  or  do  not  do  so  com- 
pletely. This  condition  arises  because  among 
the  classes  on  whom  the  burden  rests  most 
heavily  a  man  with  a  large  family  cannot 
economise  by  living  in  a  small  house,  so  he 
suffers  first  by  having  to  pay  a  larger  rent 
than  would  otherwise  be  necessary,  and  then  is 
taxed  according  to  the  amount  of  rent  he  pays. 

It  is  not  suggested  that  Eugenists  should 
immediately  start  an  agitation  for  rating 
reform,  but  they  should  point  out  the  manner 
in  which  some  of  the  taxes  or  laws  already  in 
force  tend  to  have  a  differentiating  action 
on  the  birth-rate,  and  they  should  examine 
contemplated  additions  or  alterations  of  the 
present  system  from  the  same  point  of  view. 
Their  immediate  aim  must  be  to  impress  the 
importance  of  these  considerations  on  the 
persons  responsible  for  the  adjustment  of 
taxation  or  the  introduction  of  legislation, 
and  also  on  the  public  who  by  their  votes 
ignorantly  exercise  a  vague  and  spasmodic 
control  over  Parliamentary  action. 

There  are  many  other  ways  in  which 
marriage  and  parenthood  are  discouraged 
among  people  who  are  generally  able  and 
efficient  members  of  the  community.  Both 
private  individuals  and  public  bodies  often 
find  it  convenient  to  offer  some  accommo- 
dation in  part  payment  for  the  services  of 


EUGENICS  258 

employees.  This  accommodation  is  often  so 
inadequate  that  the  possibility  of  marriage 
is  altogether  precluded.^  In  other  cases 
marriage  is  permitted,  and  it  may  be  actually 
insisted  on  because  it  is  convenient  to  employ 
a  man  and  his  wife  together;  but  then  the 
condition  is  often  made  that  there  should  be 
no  children,  which  are  for  this  purpose 
described  as  encumbrances.  Even  whai  tiiese 
degrading  terms  of  employment  are  not 
insisted  on,  the  house-room  provided  is  often 
so  deficient  in  space,  light,  and  ventilation, 
that  it  is  almost  impossible  to  rear  a  healthy 
family  in  it.  Eugenists  should  see  to  it  that 
they  are  themselves  free  from  reproach  in 
this  respect,  they  will  then  be  in  a  position 
to  reform  others. 

We  can  next  turn  our  attention  to  the 
marriage  laws,  in  which  some  alteration  is  to 
be  advocated.  Where  one  party  to  the  con- 
tract conceals  some  disease  or  defect  of  a 
kind  which  is  dangerous  to  the  other,  or  is 
likely  to  be  the  cause  of  heavy  mortality  or 
serious  defects  among  the  offspring,  the  right 
of  annulling  the  marriage  within  a  certain 
time  should  be  allowed.  Whether  insanity 
or  any  serious  disease  developed  after  marriage 

*  Wliat  has  been  said  above  does  not  apply  to  female 
domestic  servants,  because  their  occupation  is  for  the  most 
part  not  a  Ufe  work,  but  merely  a  means  by  which  they 
may  subsist  till  marriage,  when  the  occupations  and 
duties  which  it  entails  in  any  case  prevent  their  con- 
tinuing in  service. 


264  EUGENICS 

should  be  a  ground  for  divorce  is  a  question 
which  is  more  difficult  to  answer  from  the 
consideration  of  its  Eugenic  aspect;  but  on 
the  whole  it  seems  likely  that  divorce  is 
more  desirable  in  such  cases  than  legal  separa- 
tion. The  latter  prevents  both  parties  from 
re-marrying,  and,  in  doing  so,  directly  en- 
courages the  various  kinds  of  illegitimate 
unions  which  are  all  likely  to  be  dysgenic  in 
one  way  or  another.  Its  action  is  also  harm- 
ful by  being  selective,  because  it  is  far  more 
likely  to  prevent  those  whose  actions  are 
controlled  by  a  respect  for  law  and  morality 
from  having  children,  than  those  who  merely 
aim  at  self-gratification. 

The  crude  and  impracticable  proposal,  that 
before  being  allowed  to  marry,  it  should  be 
necessary  to  obtain  a  medical  certificate  of 
fitness,  must  next  be  mentioned.  It  has  no 
serious  advocates  now,  so  the  objections  to 
it  need  not  be  discussed.  But  it  has  led 
to  other  suggestions  for  which  a  great  deal 
may  be  said.  The  Norwegian  scheme  of 
health  declarations  before  marriage  has 
already  been  described  in  this  chapter,  and 
although  there  is  little  chance  of  its  intro- 
duction into  this  country,  yet  something  of 
the  same  kind,  run  on  voluntary  lines,  might 
well  be  started.  If,  as  the  result  of  gradual 
education  on  these  matters,  public  opinion 
sanctioned  and  supported  such  a  scheme,  it 
would    be    widely    extended,    because    then 


EUGENICS  255 

people  would  hesitate  before  marrying  any 
man  or  woman  who  refused  to  make  the 
required  declaration,  and  thus  it  might  have 
a  valuable  Eugenic  influence. 

But  though  something  of  use  may  be  done 
by  the  modification  of  our  laws  and  customs 
in  these  and  in  other  directions,  the  most 
important  task  before  the  apostle  of  Eugenics 
is  the  dissemination  of  the  Eugenic  ideal. 
By  this  is  meant  the  co-ordinated  group  of 
sentiments,  aspirations,  and  desires,  based 
on  a  right  appreciation  of  moral  and  social 
values,  which  will  lead  those  in  whom  they 
are  implanted  to  enter  gladly,  but  wisely,  and 
with  a  sense  of  responsibility,  on  the  duties 
and  privileges  of  marriage  and  parenthood. 

If  its  influence  is  to  be  effective,  the  right 
notions  must  be  planted  in  the  human  mind 
while  it  is  still  yoimg,  and  thus  the  suggestion 
has  been  made  that  Eugenics  should  be  in 
some  way  introduced  among  the  lessons 
learnt  at  school.  How  this  should  be  done 
is  a  pedagogic  question  of  much  difficulty, 
on  which  the  Eugenist  as  such  can  hardly  be 
expected  to  express  an  opinion.  His  object 
must  be  to  convert  those  whose  business  it 
is  to  guide  the  education  of  youth,  and  to 
supply  them  with  the  knowledge  necessary 
for  teaching  the  subject.  The  devising  of 
practical  methods  of  so  doing  must  be  left 
to  them.  To  impress  on  a  body  of  men  and 
women   who  have   the  reputation  of   being 


956  EUGENICS 

excessively  conservative  the  desirability  of 
teaching  a  subject  so  unlike  any  included  in 
the  old-fashioned  school  curriculum  might 
seem  a  task  of  considerable  difficulty;  but 
it  is  lightened  by  the  fact  that  already  a 
strong  movement  is  on  foot  among  them  for 
introducing  instruction  in  'sexual  hygiene,* 
which  is  itself  of  direct  Eugenic  value.  The 
object  of  this  movement  is  to  guard  growing 
boys  and  girls  from  the  unhealthy  and  vicious 
habits  and  thoughts  into  which  they  may  be 
led  during  the  development  of  their  sexual 
instincts.  Into  lessons  in  sexual  hygiene,  if 
they  are  found  to  be  valuable  and  practicable, 
Eugenics  might  well  enter,  as  these  lessons 
would  form  a  fitting  introduction  to  it,  while 
it  would  supply  them  with  a  larger  and  more 
spiritual  aim,  such  as  might  well  commend 
itself  to  those  whose  time  of  life  renders  them 
particularly  susceptible  to  the  appeal  of  all 
that  is  spiritual  and  altruistic. 

By  the  Eugenic  ideal  Love  must  be  guided, 
and  to  it  baser  motives  for  marriage  must  be 
subjected.  Those  who  are  carelessly  contented 
with  our  present  manners  and  customs  or 
fear  too  much  the  difficulty  of  modifying 
them  are  in  the  habit  of  expressing  in  hack- 
neyed proverbs  the  view  that  Love  cannot 
be  guided  or  controlled.  They  say  that  'Love 
is  blind.'  The  original  meaning  of  this  must 
be  that  the  blind  god  shoots  his  arrows  at 
random,    and   thus   the   mutual   attractions 


EUGENICS  X67 

felt  by  his  victims  are  the  results  of  chance 
and  not  of  choice.  This  is  obviously  untrue. 
The  more  usual  interpretation  is  that  lovers 
are  blind  to  one  another's  faults.  Fortunately 
this  is  to  some  extent  true;  but  the  inference 
drawn  from  it,  that  they  cannot  exercise 
conscious  selection  of  a  rational  kind  is 
thoroughly  false.  That  'Love  laughs  at 
locksmiths*  is  also  maintained,  but  in  answer 
it  may  be  said  that  Love  seldom  tampers 
with  a  well-made  lock.  Lovers  of  strong 
character  may  refuse  to  be  kept  apart  by 
essentially  insignificant  things;  but  what 
they  themselves  recognise  as  serious  obstacles 
to  their  imion  usually  prevent  the  idea  of 
love  from  arising  in  the  first  instance. 
Eugenics  must  teach  what  may  be  rightly 
considered  as  serious  obstacles,  but  its 
teaching  should  not  be  merely  negative. 
With  its  spirit  the  ethics  of  love  and  marriage 
must  be  imbued.  It  must  place  in  every 
heart  an  image  of  the  ideal  lover,  to  serve 
both  as  a  guide  and  a  goal;  an  ideal  of  all 
that  is  best  and  most  desirable  in  body, 
mind,  and  conduct;  an  ideal  which  should 
be  founded  not  on  false  sentimentality  but  on 
a  deep  and  true  knowledge  of  nature.  In 
this  way  Love  and  Knowledge  will  unite 
*to  grasp  this  sorry  scheme  of  things*  to  the 
end  that,  patiently  and  hopefully,  with  no 
petulant  'shattering  to  bits,'  they  may 
Remould  it  nearer  to  the  heart's  desire. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Castle,  W.  E.;  Coulter,  J.  M.;  Davenport,  C.  B.; 

East,  E.  M.;  Tower,  W.L.   Heredity  and  Eugenics. 

The  University  of  Chicago  Press.    The  Cambridge 

University  Press.    10s.  net. 
Davenport,  C.  B.    Eugenics.    Holt  &  Co.,  N.Y. 
Galton,     Sir     Francis.       Essays     in     Eugenics. 

Eugenics  Education  Society.     Is.  6d.  net. 
Galton,   Sir   Francis.     Hereditary   Genius.     Mac- 

millan  &  Co.    7s.  6d.  net. 
Galton,  Sir  Francis.     Natural  Inheritance.    Mac- 

millan  &  Co.    9s. 
Galton,   Sir   Francis,   and  E.   Schuster.     Note- 
worthy Families.    John  Murray.     6s.  net. 
Havelock   Ellis.      The    Task   of  Social   Hygiene. 

Constable.    8s.  6d.  net. 
Havelock  Ellis.     The  Problem  of  Race  Regenera- 
tion.   Cassell  &  Co.    6d.  net. 
Pearson,  K.     The  Scope  and  Importance  to  the  State 

of  the  Science  of  National  Eugenics.    Dulau  &  Co. 

Is.  net. 
P  SARSGN,  K.    Tlie  Groundwork  of  Eugenics.    Dulau 

&  Co.    Is.  net. 
Pearson,  K.     The  Problem  of  Practical  Eugenics. 

Dulau  &  Co.    Is.  net. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  250 

Peabson,  K.     Nature  and  Nurture :    The  Problsm 

of  the  Future.    Dulau  &  Co.    Is.  net. 
Pkaeson,  K.     Tfie  Academic  Aspect  of  the  Science 

of  National  Eugenics.    Dulau  &  Co.    Is.  net. 
Pearson,   K.     Darwinism :    Medical  Progress  and 

Eugenics.    Dulau  &  Co.    Is.  net. 
Saleeby,  C.  W.     The  Methods  of  Race  Regeneration 

Cassell  &  Co.    6d.  net. 
Whetham,  W.  C.  D.,  and  C.  D.    The  Family  and  Uie 

Nation  :  A  Study  in  Natural  Inheritance  and  Social 

Responsibility.    Longmans.    7s.  6d.  net. 
Whetham,   W.   C.  D.,    and    C,   D.     Heredity  and 

Society.    Longmans.    6s.  net. 
Whetham,  W.  C.  D.,  and  C.  D.    An  Introduction  to 

Eugenics.    Bowes  &  Bowes.    Is.  net. 


INDEX 


Alcohol,  action  of,  on 
germplasm,  194. 

Amentia,  171. 

American  Breeders*  Asso- 
ciation, 51. 

American  Eugenics 

Record  Office,  174. 

American  Hall  of  Fame, 
142. 

Anticyclone,  43. 

Asclepius,  29. 

Bachelors,  taxation  of, 
30. 

Barrington,  Miss,  184. 

Bateson,  Professor,  103. 

Bertillon,  219. 

Birth-rate,  207. 

-,  causes  of  declining, 

212. 

,  relation  of,  to  social 

and  economic  condi- 
tions, 220. 

Brain  structiu*e,  159. 

Breeders'  Association, 
American,  51. 

Brachydactyly,  103. 

Burt,  CyrU,  165. 

Campanella,  86. 
Cancer,    inheritance    of, 

in  mice,  129. 
Charterhouse  School  lists, 

147. 


Coat  colour  in  mice,  90 

Congress,  first  Inter- 
national Eugenics,  49. 

Consumption,  162. 

Continuity  of  the  germ- 
plasm,  58. 

Correlation,  118. 

Correlation  coefficients, 
109,  122. 

Crimean  War,  43. 

Darwin,  Charles  Robert, 

66. 

,  Dr  Erasmus,  88. 

,  Major  Leonard,  48. 

Davenport,  Dr  C.  B.,  51, 

100,  174,  237. 
Deaf-mutism,  178. 
Death-rate,  207. 
Divorce         Commission, 

Majority    Report    of, 

241. 
Dominant  character,  85. 
Duplex,  88. 

Educational  ladders, 
226. 

Egg-laying  faculty  in 
poultry,  96. 

Ellis,  Havelock,  210. 

Endogamy,  237. 

English  judges,  138. 

Environment,  direct 

action    of,    on    germ- 
plasm,  193. 


INDEX 


261 


Environment,  influence 
of,  on  individual  during 
prenatal  period,  194. 

Epilepsy,  inheritance  of, 
175. 

Eugenic  ideal,  255. 

Eugenics,  word  first  used 
in  Human  Faculty,  45. 

,  science  of,  12. 

,  Research  Fellow- 
ship in,  at  LfOndon 
University,  46. 

■ and  medicine,  29. 

Education  Society, 

47. 

f  Negative,  235. 

,  Positive,  235. 

Record  Office,  47. 

Record    Office    at 

Cold  Spring  Harbour, 
V.SJi.,  61. 

Eugenics  Review,  48. 

Evolution  of  gregarious 
animals,  75. 

,  organic,  61. 

Eye-colour,  inheritance 
of,  100. 

Exogamy,  287. 

Experimental    psycho- 
logy, 158. 

Factob,  87. 

Fame,  American  Hall  of, 

142. 
Fecundity,  inheritance  of, 

96. 
Fellows    of    the    Royal 

Society,  140. 
Femaleness,     inheritance 

of,  97. 


Finger-print  system,  44. 
First-bom  members  of  a 

family,  196. 
Fit,  77. 
Fluctuating    variability, 

73. 
Frederick  the  Great,  152. 

Galton,  Francis,  38. 
,  exploration  of  S.W. 


Africa,  42. 
-,  his  study  of  inherit- 


ance of  human  stature, 
109. 

,  his  study  of  resem- 
blances and  differences 
exhibited  by  twins, 
181. 

Galton  Eugenics  Labora- 
tory, 47. 

Gametes,  87. 

Gametic  characters,  60. 
purity,  91. 


German  Society  for  Race 

Hygiene,  52. 
Geissler,  201. 
George  William  of  Bran- 

denbiurg,  152. 
Gregarious  animals, 

evolution  of,  75. 

Habrow     School     lists, 

147. 
Heron,  Dr,  167,  184. 
Hereditary  Ability,  137. 
Hereditary  Genius,  137. 
Hereditary    Talent    and 

Genius,  44. 
Heredity,  14,  57. 


INDEX 


Secoxd-born  members 
of  a  family,  198. 

Selection,  17. 

Selective  action  of  infant 
mortality,  232. 

Selective  marriage-rate, 
233. 

Sex  hygiene,  256. 

Sexual  selection,  74. 

Sight,  relative  influence 
of  heredity  and  envi- 
ronment in,  184. 

Simplex,  88. 

Snow,  Mr,  232. 

Socrates,  25. 

Solvay,  Eugenics  Sec- 
tion at  Institut,  54. 

Soma,  60. 

Somatic  characters,  60. 

Special  creation,  79. 

Statistical  methods  ap- 
plied to  the  study  of 
inheritance,  108. 

Sterilisation  and  institu- 
tional care,  243. 

Suggestions   for   an   im- 
mediate  Eugenics 
policy,  250. 

Survival  of  the  fittest,  68. 

Tall  variety  of  peas,  84. 
Taxation,    incidence    of, 
251. 

of  bachelors,  80. 

Telegony,  202. 


Theognis  of  Megara,  25. 

Thorndike,  Professor,156. 

Tower,  Professor,  196. 

Tredgold,  Dr,  171. 

Tuberculosis,  162. 

Twins,  Galton's  study  of 
resemblances  and  dif- 
ferences exhibited  by, 
181. 

Untt  characters,  91. 

Van    Wagenen,    Mr 

Bleecker,  244 
Variation,  68. 

Wallace,  Alfred  Russel, 
66. 

Washington,  State  of, 
prohibition  of  mar- 
riages of  epileptics  in, 
240. 

War,    resvdts    of,    on 
national  physique,  232. 

Weeks,  Dr,  174. 

Weismann,  August,  68. 

Wells,  Dr,  66,  227. 

Westermarck,  239. 

Whetman,  Mr  and  Mrs, 
217. 

Woods,  Dr,  141,  151. 

Yellow  Peril,  the,  210. 
Zygote,  87. 


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